Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that the public will be able to watch the firing squad execution of a former Army officer convicted in the Fort Hood, Texas, mass shooting.
Speaking to the conservative news outlet Real America aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, Hegseth said Nidal Hassan “is going to execute soldiers, and we’re going to make sure people can watch it.”
“People need to understand that there are serious consequences to this kind of thing,” said Heggs, who called the method of execution “a no-brainer.”
Hegseth said the execution will take place at Fort Hood on Dec. 3 at 1 p.m. — the same day and time as Hassan’s attack.
The execution will be broadcast live, according to Defense Department officials, although it is unclear on which platform.
The last military execution was in 1961 when Army Pvt. John Bennett was sentenced to hang in Austria for raping and trying to kill an 11-year-old girl.
The military’s last firing squad execution was Pvt. In 1945, Eddie Slovik was court-martialed for desertion during World War II.
In 2013, Hassan was found guilty of premeditated murder through the army court system and sentenced to death.
Hassan, a former major and psychiatrist, opened fire at Fort Hood on Nov. 5, 2009, killing 13 people and wounding 32 others while shouting “Allahu akbar” (“God is great”) in Arabic.
After being shot in the attack, which left him paralyzed from the waist down, he later told a team of military mental health experts that he wished he had been killed because it would have made him a martyr to the cause. He also said that if he was executed, he would still be considered a martyr.
NBC News reported this week that the idea of firing squads has been initiated within the Pentagon this year, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the plans.
Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said on social media that President Donald Trump recently approved Hegseth’s implementation recommendations.
In an interview with Real America, Hegseth was asked if he knew if Hassan had contacted Trump or made any final demands.
“Don’t care,” Hegseth said. “We will see him on December 3.”
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, after the president approves a death sentence in a court-martial case, service members can seek habeas relief in the federal court system.
If the writ of habeas corpus is ultimately denied, the service member will be taken down a flight of stairs from death row to the death chamber of the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, where the service member will traditionally be strapped to a gurney and executed by lethal injection, according to the center. However, the Defense Ministry said Hassan would be executed by firing squad.
Hassan has been representing himself during the years-long legal proceedings, although he has two attorneys from the U.S. Army Trial Defense Service assisting as needed. It is unclear whether he will appeal the manner of his execution.