The US Pentagon has announced that it will livestream the upcoming firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood military base in 2009. This execution will be the first by firing squad by the US military since 1945. Hasan is set to be executed on December 3 at Fort Hood, the same base where he committed the crime. The execution method was chosen by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who previously championed the push to execute Hasan by firing squad.
The decision to livestream the execution is unprecedented and has garnered significant attention. According to the Pentagon, media outlets have sought to televise US executions in the past but have been blocked by the courts. No other country is known to televise or livestream a legal execution. The livestreaming of the execution will allow the public to witness the event, which Hegseth believes is necessary to understand the consequences of such crimes.
Nidal Hasan's crimes occurred on November 5, 2009, when he opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun in a medical facility at Fort Hood, killing 13 people and injuring 32 others. Hasan was left partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair after being shot by police during his arrest. A military jury sentenced him to death in August 2013 after finding him guilty of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder.
Under US military law, a US president must approve an execution by firing squad. President Donald Trump approved the execution on Hegseth's recommendation, the Pentagon said. The White House declined to comment on whether Trump supported the livestreaming of the execution, referring questions to the Pentagon. The Death Penalty Information Center reported that the last known executions by US military firing squads were in 1945.
The execution is scheduled to take place on December 3 at 1 p.m. local time, which is the same approximate time and day of the week as the 2009 shooting. Hegseth told the Human Events Daily program that deciding to execute Hasan by firing squad at Fort Hood was a "no-brainer." He emphasized that the public needed to understand the consequences of such crimes.
The group Death Penalty Action, which opposes capital punishment, noted that Hasan's execution will be the first military execution since 1961. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the 1961 execution was carried out by hanging. The livestreaming of the execution has been met with criticism, with some describing it as "extremely, extremely strange."
The debate over the death penalty has been heightened in the US following a botched lethal injection of a Tennessee woman last week. Public executions have become exceedingly rare worldwide, with countries like Iran and Taliban-run Afghanistan being among the few that still conduct them. In the US, the last legally sanctioned public execution was conducted in 1936.
Key points
- The US will livestream the Army's firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009.
- The execution is scheduled to take place on December 3 at Fort Hood, the same base where Hasan committed the crime.
- The livestreaming of the execution is unprecedented and has garnered significant attention from the public and media outlets.
