US military to livestream Fort Hood shooter's execution by firing squad

The United States will livestream the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, a former army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood military base in 2009, the Pentagon said.

Hasan, 56, is set to become the first person to be executed by firing squad by the U.S. military since World War II in 1945.

The execution is slated to take place on Dec. 3 at the same Texas base Hasan carried out his shooting.

Hegseth pushed for it

A Pentagon official told Reuters on the condition of anonymity: "It will be livestreamed. Details will follow."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed in an X post the plans to broadcast the execution.

He championed executing Hasan by firing squad.

Hegseth told the Human Events Daily programme that deciding to execute Hasan by firing squad at Fort Hood on a Thursday at 1pm was a "no-brainer".

It is scheduled to fall on the approximate time and day of the week at the location of the 2009 shooting.

"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.

Asked if Hasan had made any final requests, Hegseth said: "Don't care. We'll see him on Dec. 3."

@alarabiya_eng

“People need to understand that there are serious consequences.” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the execution of Nidal Hasan, convicted of killing 13 people and wounding dozens of others in the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, will be public.

♬ original sound - Al Arabiya English

Sentenced to death in August 2013

A military jury sentenced Hasan to death in August 2013.

He was found guilty of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder.

He had used a laser-sighted handgun in a medical facility.

The shooting came weeks before Hasan was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan.

He became partially paralysed and confined to a wheelchair after getting shot by police during his arrest.

Rarity of public executions

Executions in the U.S. are not televised as the courts have blocked media from doing so, Reuters reported.

The last legally sanctioned public execution in the U.S. occurred in 1936, death penalty experts said.

A young Black man who had been convicted of raping a white woman was hanged and thousands watched.

The anti-capital punishment group Death Penalty Action said Hasan's execution would be the first military execution since 1961, which was carried out by hanging.

The last known executions by U.S. military firing squads were in 1945, Death Penalty Information Center also reported.

A military law expert said the death row inmate would need to sue in federal court if he wanted to block a public display of his death.

Trump approved execution by firing squad

A U.S. president must approve an execution by firing squad.

President Donald Trump did so on Hegseth's recommendation, the Pentagon said on Oct. 5.

The White House declined to say if Trump supported the livestreaming and referred questions to the Pentagon.

Hasan's execution comes after the botched lethal injection of a Tennessee woman a week ago.