The United States will livestream the planned execution of former Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009, the Pentagon has announced.
The execution, scheduled for December 3, would be the first by a US military firing squad since 1945.
It would also mark an unprecedented move to broadcast an execution in the country, where courts have previously blocked attempts to televise such events.
A Pentagon official confirmed the plan to Reuters, saying, “It will be livestreamed. Details will follow.”
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also confirmed the decision in a post on X.
He had advocated for Hasan’s execution by firing squad at Fort Hood, the same military installation where the deadly shooting occurred.
Hasan, 56, was sentenced to death by a military jury in August 2013 after being found guilty of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder.
He opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun at a medical facility on the base while awaiting deployment to Afghanistan.
Police shot Hasan during his arrest, leaving him partially paralysed and confined to a wheelchair.
Under US military law, the president must approve an execution by firing squad.
President Donald Trump authorised Hasan’s execution following a recommendation from Hegseth, according to the Pentagon.
Hegseth said the decision to carry out the execution at Fort Hood on a Thursday at 1pm, around the time and day of the week the 2009 shooting occurred, was a “no-brainer.”
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public. Because people need to understand that … there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth said during an appearance on the Human Events Daily programme.
Asked whether Hasan had made any final requests, Hegseth replied, “Don’t care. We’ll see him on December 3.”
The planned broadcast has raised questions about the public display of executions.
Experts said no other country was known to televise or livestream a legally sanctioned execution.
Eugene Fidell, a lawyer, author and military law expert who lectures at Yale Law School, described the proposal as unusual, saying it would be unprecedented to his knowledge.
Fidell noted that Hasan would have to file a lawsuit in federal court if he wanted to challenge the public broadcast of his death.
He added that the US Supreme Court had never directly addressed the issue.
Jonathan Lurie, an author and historian of military justice, also questioned the rationale for making the execution public.
“What’s the point of it? Who would want to see that?” Lurie said.
Public executions have become increasingly rare worldwide, although Iran and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan are among the places reported to have conducted them in recent years.
The last legally sanctioned public execution in the United States took place in 1936, according to death penalty experts.
However, the last known executions by US military firing squads were carried out in 1945.
The group Death Penalty Action, which opposes capital punishment, said Hasan’s execution would be the first military execution since 1961.
Records from the Death Penalty Information Center indicate that the 1961 execution was carried out by hanging.
Firing squads remain an authorised execution method in at least five US states.
South Carolina conducted the first firing squad execution in the country in 15 years in 2025.
The Trump administration has also expanded the execution methods permitted for federal crimes, adding firing squads, electrocution and gas asphyxiation to the available options.
The move was partly prompted by difficulties in obtaining drugs for lethal injections and challenges associated with administering them.
The planned execution comes amid renewed debate over capital punishment following a botched lethal injection in Tennessee last week.
Christa Pike, a death-row inmate whose execution attempt failed, remained seriously ill in hospital, according to her lawyers, who said she had awoken “angry and confused.”
