The US military announced on Thursday that the execution of Nidal Hasan, the gunman responsible for the 2009 Fort Hood massacre, will be broadcast live. The decision follows statements made by Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth, who confirmed the method of execution and the intention to hold it in public view.
Hasan is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3. This will be the first execution carried out by the US military since 1961 and the first firing squad execution since the end of World War II.
Hegseth shared the details in a video posted Wednesday by official Pentagon accounts on the platform X. Speaking to right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, Hegseth stated that Hasan would receive “a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be” and that the government would “make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public.”
The Pentagon added that further specifics regarding the proceedings would be released at a later date.
Hasan, a former US Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and injured 32 others during the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas. In 2013, a military court sentenced him to death. During his trial, Hasan asserted that he carried out the attack to protect Taliban members in Afghanistan from US troops.
The announcement comes amid ongoing discussions surrounding capital punishment in the United States, including recent controversies involving state-level executions.
Finally, some accountability. The victims’ families deserve transparency, not secrecy around such a heinous crime.
Livestreaming an execution feels dystopian. This sets a terrible precedent for how we treat justice and trauma.