Trump approves firing squad execution for Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan

The Big Picture

President Donald Trump has approved the execution by U.S. Army firing squad of former Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was sentenced to death for killing 13 people and wounding 32 others at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.

The execution is scheduled for Dec. 3 at Fort Hood, according to the Army and Pentagon officials. If carried out, it would be the first U.S. military execution of any kind since 1961 and the first military execution by firing squad since Pvt. Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion in 1945.

The Pentagon has also said the execution will be livestreamed for public viewing. Officials have not announced a platform or detailed how the broadcast would operate, and the plan has sparked opposition from lawmakers, legal experts, religious leaders and human rights advocates.

What Happened

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended that Hasan be executed by an Army firing squad and that Trump approved the recommendation. Under military law, a death sentence imposed through a court-martial requires presidential approval before an execution can proceed.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who held the rank of major, opened fire on Nov. 5, 2009, at a medical processing center at Fort Hood, where troops were awaiting medical checks before deployment. He was convicted by a military jury in 2013 and sentenced to death.

Hasan represented himself during much of the court-martial and acknowledged he was the shooter. He said he acted to stop U.S. troops from deploying to Afghanistan and killing fellow Muslims. Responding officers shot Hasan during the attack, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down, according to NPR and NBC News.

Hegseth said the firing squad execution would take place at 1 p.m. local time on Dec. 3. The Pentagon later confirmed that it would be livestreamed, though it has not released operational details or identified where the public could view it.

Why It Matters

The planned execution would restart military capital punishment after more than six decades. The last U.S. military execution occurred in 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged. The last military firing squad execution was Slovik's in France during World War II.

The proposed public broadcast would also be without known modern U.S. precedent. Executions are generally witnessed by limited groups that may include victims' relatives, journalists and officials. The last widely recognized public execution in the United States was the 1936 hanging of Rainey Bethea in Kentucky, though some historical accounts cite a less prominent public hanging in Missouri in 1937.

Major technology platforms could present another obstacle. Meta explicitly bars livestreams of capital punishment, while YouTube, TikTok and X have policies restricting highly graphic violence or imagery showing death. The Pentagon has not said whether it intends to use a social media platform, its own website or another method.

What Each Side Is Saying

Hegseth defended public access to the execution in an interview with Real America's Voice. “We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public,” he said, adding that people needed to understand there were “serious consequences” for such crimes.

The proposal has received bipartisan criticism. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said Hasan should face the death penalty but called making the execution public and streaming it “beyond disgusting.” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy called public executions “medieval.”

The United Nations human rights office said livestreaming the execution would amount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition on torture. Alonzo Lunsford, a Fort Hood survivor who was shot seven times, told the BBC he supports Hasan's execution by firing squad but does not believe it should be viewed as entertainment.

Vice President JD Vance said he was unsure that the livestream would actually occur and said he would not watch it if it did. Trump later said he “absolutely” approved the livestream plans, while also saying the Pentagon was still “making a determination” about the broadcast.

What Happens Next

Despite the scheduled Dec. 3 date, Hasan may still seek habeas corpus review in civilian federal court. Legal experts told the BBC and NPR that such a challenge could delay the execution substantially, potentially for years.

The Pentagon has reiterated that the execution will be livestreamed but has provided no further details. Until the government resolves the legal process and explains how public viewing would occur, both the timing of the execution and the proposed broadcast remain uncertain.