Pentagon Will Livestream Nidal Hasan's Firing Squad Execution
The military confirmed Thursday that the Dec. 3 execution at Fort Hood will be public. It would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961 — and the first by firing squad since 1945.
The Pentagon confirmed Thursday that the firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan will be livestreamed. The announcement came the morning after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the public should be able to watch.
Hegseth made the remarks to Real America’s Voice, speaking aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” he said, adding that “people need to understand that there are serious consequences for these types of things.” Pentagon officials confirmed Thursday morning that the execution will be streamed live, and said more details would follow.
Hasan, a former Army major and psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others at Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 5, 2009. A military jury convicted him in 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder. He has been on death row at Fort Leavenworth ever since.
The execution is scheduled for Dec. 3 at Fort Hood, at 1 p.m. local time — the same hour Hasan carried out the 2009 attack. President Trump approved the firing-squad method on Monday, acting on Hegseth’s recommendation.
It would be the first execution carried out by the U.S. military since 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth. The last military execution by firing squad came in 1945, when Pvt. Eddie Slovik was shot for desertion during World War II.
The White House referred questions about the livestream to the Pentagon on Thursday.
Critics of the death penalty spoke out. Death Penalty Action, which campaigns to end executions, called the decision “just another Donald Trump distraction from his poll numbers.”
