The United States is preparing to carry out a firing squad execution of former Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan in December, with the Pentagon confirming that the unprecedented execution will be livestreamed for the public to watch.
Hasan, who was convicted of the deadly 2009 Fort Hood shooting in Texas, is scheduled to be executed on December 3, 2026, at the same military base where he opened fire on fellow military personnel, killing 13 people and injuring 32 others.
The execution date was announced by Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle after President Donald Trump approved the death sentence on October 2, following the completion of the appeals process. Hasan was sentenced to death by a military court-martial in 2013 after being convicted over the attack.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, also referred to as the Secretary of War by the Trump administration, has defended the decision to make the execution public, arguing that it would demonstrate the serious consequences of such crimes.
Hegseth said arrangements would be made for people to watch the execution, a position subsequently confirmed by a Pentagon official who told Reuters that the event would be livestreamed, although further details had yet to be announced.
The planned execution marks a significant moment in U.S. military history. The last military execution took place in April 1961, when Army Private John Bennett was hanged. The last known execution by a U.S. military firing squad, however, occurred in November 1945, near the end of the Second World War.
The decision to livestream Hasan’s execution has sparked debate over the ethics and implications of making state-sanctioned killing available for public viewing. While supporters of the move argue that it could serve as a deterrent against serious crimes, critics have raised concerns about the normalisation of public executions and the potential consequences of broadcasting an execution online.
Public executions have largely disappeared from modern American life, with the country’s last widely recognised public execution taking place in Kentucky in 1936. The proposed livestream would therefore represent a major departure from the longstanding practice of keeping executions away from public view.
If carried out as announced, Hasan’s execution would place the United States among the small number of countries where public executions remain a feature of state punishment, a development likely to intensify international debate over capital punishment, human rights and the role of deterrence in criminal justice.