The Pentagon said Thursday that the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution would be “public.”
Hegseth told Real America’s Voice News on Wednesday that Hasan will be executed at Fort Hood on Dec. 3. Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in a 2009 shooting at the Texas military base. “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” Hegseth said.
Asked whether Hasan had made final requests or contacted the Trump administration, Hegseth replied, “Don’t care. We’ll see him on December 3rd.” He made the remarks aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln while visiting the crew before its return to San Diego.
Military law experts said Hasan could still seek to delay the execution by filing a habeas petition in civilian court. Eugene R. Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School, said such a challenge “frankly might outlast the current administration, and who knows if the next one will have the same penchant for executions.”
Hasan, then an Army major and psychiatrist, opened fire on Nov. 5, 2009, in a medical building where soldiers were waiting for immunizations and deployment clearances. He shouted “Allahu akbar” and used a laser-sighted handgun. Investigators recovered 146 shell casings inside the building and more outside, where he shot soldiers fleeing toward the parking lot.
Trial evidence showed he planned the attack for weeks, including practicing rapid reloading; soldiers later testified that the reloading made the shooting hard to stop. Hasan said he acted to stop soldiers from deploying to Afghanistan and killing fellow Muslims.
Hegseth said the military has not executed a service member by firing squad since World War II. The last military execution was on April 13, 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged.