Hegseth says the public will be able to watch Nidal Hasan’s Dec. 3 firing-squad execution
The Pentagon says the Dec. 3 firing-squad execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan will be livestreamed, a plan that drew swift criticism from Republicans and Democrats after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution would be public.
Pentagon officials confirmed the livestream on Thursday, the Associated Press reported, a day after Hegseth said in a television interview that people would be able to watch. Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded 32 others in the 2009 attack at the Texas base.
Pentagon Says Hasan Execution Will Be Livestreamed
Hasan is scheduled to be executed at 1 p.m. Central time on Dec. 3 at Fort Hood, the same base where he carried out the shooting, acting Army Secretary Adam Telle announced.
President Donald Trump approved the death sentence on Oct. 2 on Hegseth’s recommendation, including the use of a firing squad, according to the execution order Telle signed on Oct. 6. The Pentagon announced the approval on Monday evening, CNBC reported.
Hegseth discussed the plan with Real America’s Voice host Jack Posobiec in an interview aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on Wednesday.
“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, according to CNN.
Hegseth said in the interview that Fort Hood was chosen because that is where Hasan carried out the attack, and that the 1 p.m. time was picked to roughly coincide with when the shooting began, ABC News reported. The Pentagon said more details on the livestream would follow.
Bipartisan Backlash Over a Public Execution
The plan quickly drew criticism from both parties, and several critics compared it to public executions abroad.
“Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America,” outgoing Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina wrote on X, CNN reported.
Republican Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia said he supports the death penalty but that “live-streaming executions is what jihadists do. America is better than that,” according to CNN.
Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah and Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut also objected. Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called the plan a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death,” CNN reported.
Vice President JD Vance cast doubt on Friday that it would happen at all.
“I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen,” Vance said, adding that he would not watch it if it were streamed, CNN reported. Trump told reporters Friday evening that the administration would make a determination.
Trump has himself criticized public executions in Iran in the past, the AP noted. The last widely recognized public execution in the United States was a 1936 hanging in Kentucky, according to ABC News.
Hegseth Dismisses Hasan’s Final Requests
Hegseth was aboard the Lincoln to visit its long-deployed crew, who supported the Iran war, before the carrier’s return to San Diego.
When Posobiec asked whether Hasan had made any final requests or reached out to the Trump administration, Hegseth gave a two-sentence answer.
“Don’t care. We’ll see him on December 3rd,” he said, the AP reported. The Daily Wire reported the same words.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell had announced the president’s approval on X on Monday. “Judgement day for Hasan has finally come,” Parnell wrote, CNBC reported.
Possible Court Challenge Could Delay Execution
The Dec. 3 date is not final. Experts in military law say Hasan could still file a habeas corpus petition in federal civilian court, which could significantly delay the execution, the AP reported.
“It frankly might outlast the current administration, and who knows if the next one will have the same penchant for executions,” said Eugene R. Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School who specializes in military law, according to the AP.
John Galligan, a retired Army colonel who has represented Hasan as a civilian attorney for years, told ABC News that a habeas petition is a real possibility, though no final decision has been made. Army rules require an execution to be scheduled 60 to 150 days after presidential approval, and Galligan criticized the Army for choosing a date close to the earliest allowed.
He also objected to holding it at Fort Hood. “I’m surprised and shocked that they want to bring him back to Fort Hood. I think it’s more of a public spectacle,” Galligan said, ABC News reported.
Hasan is paralyzed and uses a wheelchair, after military officers subdued him during the attack. He is held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and is one of four military prisoners on death row.
The 2009 Fort Hood Attack
On Nov. 5, 2009, Hasan, then an Army major and psychiatrist, walked into a medical building at Fort Hood where soldiers were waiting for immunizations and clearance to deploy. He shouted in Arabic and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun, killing 13 people and wounding 32 others, the AP reported. Investigators recovered 146 shell casings inside the building.
Hasan was convicted and sentenced to death at a 2013 court-martial. The Supreme Court declined to review his court-martial conviction on March 31, 2025, CNBC reported.
Hegseth has pushed for the death penalty in the case for much of his tenure. In September 2025 he told The Hill: “I am 100 percent committed to ensuring the death penalty is carried out for Nidal Hasan,” according to CNBC.
Trump referred to the case in remarks Wednesday night. “We also recently announced that we’re going to deliver final justice to an evil killer, the Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Hasan,” he said, The National News Desk reported.
First Military Execution Since 1961
If it goes ahead, Hasan’s execution would be the first carried out by the U.S. military in 65 years. The last took place on April 13, 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged, according to the AP.
It would also be the military’s first firing-squad execution since World War II, a method Hegseth recommended and Trump approved.
Featured image from: SECWAR, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons