Public Execution

Nidal Hasan will face a firing squad. The Pentagon plans to livestream the execution, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced this week.

Thirteen people died and more than 30 were wounded when Hasan opened fire during a 2009 shooting at the Fort Hood base in Texas, according to ABC News. Dec. 3 is the scheduled execution date, CBS News reported, citing an email sent to victims' families. It would be the first U.S. military execution in more than 60 years and the first by firing squad since World War Two, according to NPR.

Trump approved the execution on Hegseth's recommendation, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed, according to NPR. "Judgement day for Hasan has finally come," Parnell wrote on social media, NPR reported.

Hegseth defended the decision to broadcast the execution publicly. "People need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things," he told the BBC. In a separate interview with Real America's Voice, Hegseth said Hasan is "gonna get a firing squad of soldiers. As it should be," the BBC reported.

Critics called the plan extreme. Livestreaming the execution would be "tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture," the United Nations human rights office warned, according to the Guardian and the BBC. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy told CNN the idea was "disgusting" and compared it to executions carried out by the Islamic State group, according to the BBC. John Mills, a lawyer who represents death row inmates, told the BBC the plan is "unprecedented in the modern era" and sits on "uncertain legal terrain."

Not over yet. Hasan could still file a habeas corpus appeal in federal court, which would likely delay the execution, Robin Maher of the Death Penalty Information Center told NPR. "The fact that the president has approved Mr. Hasan's death sentence is another step closer to his execution," Maher said. "But that does not mean that his execution will be imminent."

Hasan opened fire at a Fort Hood processing center in November 2009 as soldiers prepared to deploy to Afghanistan, shouting "Allahu akbar" before security officers shot and paralyzed him, NPR reported. He represented himself at his 2013 court-martial and testified that he acted to protect Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, the BBC reported. The Supreme Court denied his final appeal in the spring of 2025, NPR reported.

Alonzo Lunsford, a former Army sergeant shot seven times in the attack, told the BBC he plans to attend the execution. "I want him to know he failed," he said. "I'm still here."