The Pentagon has confirmed that the firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army major convicted of the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting, will be livestreamed — a move that would make it the first execution ever broadcast live by any government.
A Pentagon official told Reuters, AP and AFP on Thursday that Hasan's execution "will be livestreamed. Details will follow." The announcement caps a week of escalating public statements: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on Wednesday that the execution would be "public," adding, "We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public." Hegseth later confirmed the livestream plan by replying "correct" to a CBS News report on X.
President Donald Trump approved the firing-squad execution on Hegseth's recommendation on Monday, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said. Under U.S. military law, the president must personally approve a firing-squad execution. The White House referred questions about the livestream to the Pentagon.
December 3 at Fort Hood: The Date and Time
The execution is set for December 3, 2026, at 1 p.m. local time at Fort Hood, Texas — the same base where the attack took place. The date and time were set by Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle. Hegseth said a Thursday 1 p.m. execution mirrors the day and time of the 2009 shooting, calling the choice a "no brainer."
The 2009 Attack and the 2013 Death Sentence
On November 5, 2009, Hasan — then a 39-year-old Army psychiatrist — opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun inside a medical processing center at Fort Hood, targeting troops preparing to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq. Thirteen people were killed — 12 military members and one civilian, including a pregnant private — and 32 others were wounded. Police shot Hasan during the response, leaving him partially paralyzed and wheelchair-bound.
A military jury sentenced Hasan, now 56, to death in August 2013 after convicting him of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. He has sat on military death row ever since.
A Historic First — If It Happens
The execution would be the first U.S. military firing-squad execution since World War II — Private Eddie Slovik was executed by firing squad for desertion in 1945 — and the first military execution of any kind since 1961, when John Bennett was hanged for rape and attempted murder.
The livestream claim is even more unprecedented. The Death Penalty Information Center says no government has ever livestreamed an execution; the last legally sanctioned public execution in the United States was the 1936 hanging of Rainey Bethea in Owensboro, Kentucky. The firing squad itself is one of several execution methods the Trump administration recently added for the gravest federal crimes, alongside electrocution and gas asphyxiation. South Carolina carried out the first U.S. firing-squad execution in 15 years in 2025.
Legal Experts Raise Red Flags
Military-law expert Eugene Fidell of Yale told Reuters that livestreaming an execution "would be extremely, extremely strange," noting the Supreme Court has never addressed the question. Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said the comments "may be more aspirational than based in reality," since no regulation or precedent for a government livestream exists. How the Pentagon would technically and legally broadcast a military execution remains unclear — "details will follow" is all the Pentagon has said so far.
What Comes Next
With the December 3 date locked in and the president's approval secured, attention now turns to the Pentagon's still-unexplained livestream mechanics — and whether the legal and logistical hurdles experts warn about will reshape the plan before execution day.
Watch: NBC News NOW — "Pentagon says it will livestream firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter," with Gordon Lubold reporting on Defense Secretary Hegseth's announcement aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Hitman (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources: Reuters, CNN, USA Today, The Associated Press