The Pentagon has said it will livestream the firing-squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009. It would be the first execution carried out by an American military firing squad since 1945.
The announcement was made on Thursday by the US Defense Department. The execution is scheduled for December 3 at Fort Hood in Texas — the same base where Hasan opened fire on unarmed soldiers almost seventeen years ago.
A deliberate schedule
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution would take place at 1 p.m. local time, on a Thursday, at Fort Hood. The timing mirrors the 2009 shooting, which took place during the 1 p.m. hour on a Thursday.
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth said in an interview aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
When asked whether Hasan had made any final requests or contacted the administration, Hegseth replied: “Don’t care. We’ll see him on December 3.”
The move to use a firing squad was recommended by Hegseth and approved by President Donald Trump. “It will be livestreamed. Details will follow,” a Pentagon official told Reuters.
The 2009 attack
Hasan, a US-born Muslim and former Army major, opened fire at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009. He killed twelve members of the military and one civilian, and wounded 32 others, in one of the deadliest attacks ever at a US military installation.
He was convicted in July 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder. During his trial, he said he was targeting soldiers preparing to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq, describing the wars as illegal.
He has been held on military death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, since his conviction.
Unprecedented broadcast of the Fort Hood shooter execution
Media organisations have repeatedly sought to televise American executions but have been blocked by the courts. If the plan goes ahead, Hasan’s death would be the first public execution in the United States since two hangings in Kentucky and Missouri in the 1930s.
Death-penalty experts say no other country is known to televise or livestream a legal execution. Public executions have become rare worldwide; Iran and Taliban-run Afghanistan are among the few countries still known to conduct them.
The decision has landed in the middle of renewed debate in the US over capital punishment, following a botched lethal injection in Tennessee last week.
FAQ
When is the execution scheduled?
December 3 at 1 p.m. local time at Fort Hood, Texas — the same base, weekday and hour as the 2009 attack.
Who is Nidal Hasan?
A former US Army major and psychiatrist who killed 13 people and wounded 32 at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2013.
Has the US military executed anyone recently?
No. If carried out, this would be the first US military execution by firing squad since 1945 and the first military execution of any kind since 1961.
