Pentagon Plans to Livestream Firing-Squad Execution of Nidal Hasan on 3 December

The Department of Defense intends to livestream the firing-squad execution of former Army Major Nidal Hasan, scheduled for 3 December at Fort Hood. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the event would be public so that people would understand there are serious consequences for attacks of the kind Hasan carried out.

Hasan, a psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others at Fort Hood on 5 November 2009. A military court sentenced him to death in 2013. He has been held at Fort Leavenworth. President Trump approved the use of a firing squad on Hegseth’s recommendation. The last U.S. military firing-squad execution occurred in 1945.

Hegseth confirmed the livestream plan in public statements and on social media. Pentagon officials said the broadcast would take place. Trump said he approved of the overall plan and understood the desire for an example, though he later indicated he had not been involved in the specific decision to stream it. Vice-President JD Vance said he was not certain the livestream would occur and that he did not plan to watch.

The announcement drew criticism from both parties. One Republican senator called the idea disgusting. Legal observers noted that Army regulations on military executions list a limited set of authorised witnesses and do not contemplate a general internet broadcast. Questions have been raised about whether courts will intervene before 3 December.

The decision follows a failed lethal-injection attempt in Tennessee involving Christa Pike, after which the Pentagon announced the firing-squad method for Hasan. Hegseth has described the choice of soldiers carrying out the execution at the site of the original attack as appropriate. He set the time at 1 p.m., matching the hour of the 2009 shootings.

Public executions have not occurred in the United States for nearly a century. The planned stream would be the first known internet broadcast of a government-carried-out execution in the country. Critics have argued that the format risks turning the event into spectacle and could affect legal proceedings still available to Hasan.

Hasan represented himself at trial and has exhausted many appeals. Whether additional challenges focused on the method or the broadcast will delay the date remains open. The Pentagon has not released technical details of how the stream would be distributed or what restrictions, if any, would apply to viewers.

The case continues to generate debate over the military justice system, the death penalty, and the boundaries of public access to state-administered punishment. The 3 December date remains the official schedule pending any court action.