The Pentagon says it will livestream the execution of former U.S. Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, who was sentenced to death for killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. It would be the first publicly livestreamed execution in U.S. history.
Former U.S. Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan is set to be executed by military firing squad on 3 December at Fort Hood, Texas, where he killed 13 people in a 2009 mass shooting. The planned livestream would be unprecedented in U.S. history.
It would also mark the first execution carried out by a U.S. military firing squad since 1945.
A Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed plans to broadcast the execution live, with further details to be announced.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has advocated for Hasan's execution by firing squad, confirmed the plans in a post on X.
Speaking to the Human Events Daily programme, Hegseth said the decision to hold the execution at Fort Hood at 13:00 on Thursday was straightforward, with the time and location closely matching those of the 2009 attack.
“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 whether Hasan had made any final requests, Hegseth responded: “Don't care. We'll see him on December 3.”
Broadcasting the execution would break with longstanding U.S. practices. Media organisations have previously sought permission to televise executions, but courts have rejected such requests.
FLegal experts say no country is known to televise or livestream judicial executions. Public executions are increasingly rare worldwide, although Iran and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan have carried them out in recent years.
The last legally authorised public execution in the U.S. took place in 1936, when thousands of people watched the hanging of a Black man convicted of raping a white woman.
“It would be extremely, extremely strange” to livestream the event, said Eugene Fidell, a military law expert and lecturer at Yale Law School.
Fidell said Hasan could seek to block the broadcast by challenging it in federal court.
Military justice historian Jonathan Lurie also questioned the decision, saying there was no compelling justification for allowing the public to watch the execution.
Hasan was sentenced to death in August 2013 after a military jury convicted him on 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted murder.
He carried out the attack shortly before he was due to deploy to Afghanistan. Wounded by police during the shooting, Hasan remains partially paralysed and uses a wheelchair.
Under U.S. military law, executions by firing squad require presidential authorisation. President Donald Trump approved the execution on Hegseth's recommendation, according to the Pentagon.
The White House has not said whether Trump supports the livestream, directing questions to the U.S. Defense Department.
Death Penalty Action, an organisation opposing capital punishment, said Hasan's execution would be the first carried out by the U.S. military in 65 years. The last military execution took place in 1961, when a prisoner was hanged.
The announcement comes amid renewed scrutiny of capital punishment in the U.S., particularly over problems associated with lethal injections.
Last week, Tennessee prison officials were unable to complete the execution of death-row inmate Christa Pike, who survived an attempted lethal injection and was taken to hospital.
Her lawyers said she remained seriously ill and restrained to a hospital bed after the procedure.
Shortages of lethal injection drugs and concerns about the method's reliability have prompted authorities to explore alternatives.
The Trump administration has expanded the execution methods permitted for the most serious federal offences, including firing squads, electrocution and gas asphyxiation.
At least five U.S. states allow executions by firing squad in certain circumstances. South Carolina carried out the country's first such execution in 15 years in 2025.
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