Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed for public viewing.
Hegseth, 44, revealed the December 3 execution date during a Wednesday interview with Real America’s Voice News, a conservative media outlet. Hasan, 54, will face a firing squad at Fort Hood, the same Texas military base where he carried out the deadliest mass shooting on a U.S. Military installation in modern history.
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” Hegseth said in the interview.
The former Army psychiatrist was convicted for his role in the November 2009 attack that killed 13 people and wounded 32 others at the sprawling central Texas post. Hasan opened fire on fellow soldiers at a deployment processing center as they prepared to ship out to Afghanistan, targeting personnel in a crowded readiness facility.
Military prosecutors pursued the death penalty throughout Hasan’s court-martial, which he largely conducted himself after dismissing his legal team. He offered no real defense and made little effort to counter the overwhelming evidence against him, including eyewitness testimony from dozens of survivors.
The case dragged through years of appeals and procedural delays, with Hasan confined at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, home to the military’s death row. His execution, when carried out, will mark the first military execution since 1961 and the first use of the firing squad as a method under modern military justice protocols.
Hegseth’s decision to publicly livestream the execution represents a sharp departure from recent federal and military practice, where executions have typically been conducted with limited witnesses and minimal public exposure. The announcement came as part of a broader pattern of transparency pledges from the Pentagon’s current leadership.
Hasan’s attack stunned the military community and prompted years of debate about base security, the handling of internal threats, and whether warning signs about his deteriorating mental state and communications with radical clerics had been adequately addressed. An independent review commissioned after the shooting found that intelligence agencies had failed to share critical information that might have prevented the attack.
The convicted shooter sustained paralysis from the waist down after being shot by civilian police officers who responded to the scene. He has used a wheelchair throughout his incarceration and legal proceedings.
Military law permits execution by lethal injection or firing squad, with the method determined by the convening authority. The selection of firing squad in Hasan’s case follows his own earlier requests for that method, though final arrangements rest with military command.
Family members of the victims and survivors of the attack have waited more than fifteen years for final resolution of the case. Several have publicly advocated for swifter implementation of the sentence as a matter of justice for those killed and wounded in the processing center ambush.
The Pentagon has not yet released technical details about how the livestream will be distributed or what restrictions, if any, will apply to the broadcast. Previous military executions, even those conducted decades ago, were typically witnessed only by small groups of officials, media representatives, and family members directly connected to the case.
Hasan remains in military custody as Fort Hood prepares for the December 3 date announced by Hegseth.
The execution is scheduled to take place at Fort Hood, Texas.