Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 in Fort Hood shooting, to be publicly executed by firing squad on livestream
· Yahoo NewsThe execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan by firing squad will be livestreamed to the public, the Pentagon said Thursday.
The Army announced this week that the execution would take place at Fort Hood on Dec. 3 after Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting at the military base in 2009.
On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the conservative TV outlet Real America's Voice, "He's gonna get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be. 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."
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Pentagon officials clarified Thursday that the execution would be livestreamed, the Associated Press said.
The U.S. military has not carried out an execution since 1961 and has not used a firing squad to execute a service member since World War II.
Hegseth's comments have put further spotlight on how the death penalty is carried out in the U.S., following the failed attempt to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection. The failed execution prompted Tennessee's governor to halt further executions this year and order a third-party review.
Asked whether the failed execution in Tennessee would lead him to seek changes to capital punishment, Trump called it "an interesting situation." He told reporters in Denton, Texas, that carrying out lethal injections "shouldn't be very difficult."
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Hasan was convicted in a 2013 court-martial of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder and was sentenced to death. He exhausted his regular appeals in 2025.
He could choose to challenge his execution and file a habeas petition — a legal request to review the legality of a detention — in civilian court, which could significantly delay the execution beyond the current administration.
Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert and law professor at Fordham University, told the AP that livestreaming an execution "could possibly be a good idea because it would be transparent and the public would be fully aware that it's happening."
Geoffrey Corn, a Texas Tech University law professor, told CBS News that the plan "raises significant moral questions, above and beyond the questions related to the death penalty generally."
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He said, "There's a certain protocol that is normally followed with executions limiting the gallery of observers, which usually includes people close to the victims and certain members of the media. I think it's an acknowledgment of the gravity of the penalty to be imposed."
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights told the AFP news agency, "The livestreaming of an execution is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture."
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 on Nov. 5, 2009 after walking into the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, at Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas, where soldiers were undergoing medical checkups.
Witnesses said Hasan shouted "Allahu akbar" — Arabic for "God is great!" — before opening fire with a laser-sighted handgun. According to the Associated Press, Hasan said he carried out the shooting to stop soldiers from going to Afghanistan and killing his fellow Muslims.
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He represented himself at his 2013 court-martial and mounted little defense, telling jurors that evidence would show he was the shooter and describing himself as a soldier who had "switched sides."
Why a firing squad rather than lethal injection?
The Pentagon did not explain why Hasan would be executed by firing squad rather than lethal injection, the method specified in the military's current execution regulations. It also did not say whether those regulations would need to change.
The Army adopted a plan in February for carrying out military executions at the federal government's execution facility in Terre Haute, Ind., ABC News reported in June.
Known as Operation Resolute Justice, the plan calls for condemned service members to be transferred there from the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and for the Army to coordinate with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The Army is to be ready to carry out an execution no sooner than 60 days and within 150 days of presidential approval. ABC's report did not specify an execution method.
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The Justice Department separately directed the Bureau of Prisons in April to expand its protocol for federal civilian executions to include methods beyond lethal injection, including firing squads. That change does not apply to military executions.
Firing squads have also recently returned at the state level. Five states allow them, according to the Death Penalty Information Center: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah.
Idaho made the firing squad its primary execution method on July 1 after a law signed in 2025 took effect. South Carolina carried out three firing squad executions in 2025, the first uses of the method in the U.S. since 2010. Condemned prisoners there can choose among authorized execution methods.
Brenner Fissell, a professor at Villanova Law and vice president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said, "Firing squads can be a quicker, cleaner, more precise way to execute a prisoner. I don't think that's what's motivating this. There's a perceived masculinity and military-ness to firing squads that is part of the aura Hegseth is trying to emphasize — the 'lethality culture.'"
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After Pike's failed execution, several top Republicans in Tennessee said they want to explore alternative ways of executing condemned prisoners.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the state's Republican candidate for governor, told the AP, "If it's lethal injection, if it is electric chair, what we do know is we have to find a way to do this — and do it successfully."
Top legislative leaders have already spoken with Blackburn about potential changes to state execution laws during their 2027 session.
"We want to broaden it, include more methods," Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton said. "What those are as of today, I'm not sure. But I don't think there's any method that's off the table at this point."
How common are military executions?
Death sentences are extremely rare in the military justice system, and executions are even rarer. Four men, including Hasan, are currently on the military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
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President George W. Bush approved the execution of Army Spc. Ronald Gray in 2008, but a judge put it on hold. Gray remains at Fort Leavenworth.
The last person executed under the military justice system was Pvt. John Bennett, who was hanged in 1961 for the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl.