The U.S. military plans to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, a former Army major convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009. Facing firing squad on December 3a Pentagon official said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier Thursday that the Pentagon planned to make the executions public.
“He’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers, that’s how it should be,” Hegseth told Jack Posobik on “Real America.” “We’re going to make sure people can watch it and it’s public – because people need to understand that there are serious consequences to this sort of thing.”
Hegseth said the early December execution will take place at Fort Hood at 1 p.m.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration Approves plan to execute Hassan. Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said on social media that the plan to use Army death squads was suggested by Heggs and approved by President Trump.
While executions are sometimes witnessed by a small group of people, including journalists and victims’ families, executions that the public can view are almost unheard of in recent American history.
The last public execution in the United States appears to have occurred in 1936, when René Bethea was hanged for rape in Kentucky, reportedly attracting a crowd of around 20,000 people.
Geoffrey Corn, a Texas Tech University law professor who served in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Office, told CBS News that plans to livestream executions “raise significant ethical questions that go beyond the general issues related to the death penalty.”
“There is usually a certain protocol that is followed at executions that limits the scope of observers, which often includes people close to the victim and certain members of the media,” he said. “I think that’s an acknowledgment of the seriousness of the punishment that’s being imposed.”
He added: “In short, turning the execution of this penalty into some type of public spectacle is an echo of a past that we seem to have put behind us.”
CBS News has reached out to Hasan’s attorney for comment.
Hassan is a former army psychiatrist who was convicted in a 2013 military court of murdering 13 people and wounding more than 30 others. Hassan admitted at trial He took responsibility for the shooting and claimed he fired at other Army members in an attempt to protect Islamist insurgents from U.S. forces. He was sentenced to death.
Hassan’s case could mark the first time the military has executed an American service member since 1961, when a soldier was hanged for raping and attempting to murder an 11-year-old girl.
It also marked the rare use of firing squads. “We haven’t done this since World War II,” Hegseth said, referring to the military’s 1945 execution of Private Pvt. Eddie Slovik was charged with desertion.
Last year, South Carolina civil courts used this method of execution three times, marking a milestone for the country. First firing squad since 2010. The federal government typically uses lethal injection in civilian death penalty cases, although the Justice Department said earlier this year that officials should consider other methods, including firing squads and electrocution.
Hegseth’s decision follows a lengthy appeals process for Hassan. He chose to represent himself at the trial, and in an unusual course of events, he Conflict with court-appointed backup counselwho feared Hassan was deliberately seeking the death penalty.
Hassan asked the Supreme Court to review his case in 2024, arguing that the judge violated his right to a public trial by removing members of the public from the courtroom before discussing some of his issues with lawyers. Last year, the High Court refused to hear the issue.