The United States government has announced that the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan by firing squad will be livestreamed. Pentagon officials confirmed the plan on Thursday, following remarks by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth that the execution would be public.
“We will make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public,” Hegseth said while speaking to conservative television outlet Real America's Voice. Pentagon officials said further details about the livestream would be released later, according to an AP News report.
The planned execution would mark the first time the US military carrying out a death penalty in more than 65 years. The military last conducted an execution in 1961.
The US Army announced this week that Hasan's execution is scheduled for December 3 at Fort Hood, Texas. Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting at the military base on November 5, 2009.
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Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on Monday that President Donald Trump had approved Hasan's execution. Acting US Army Secretary Adam Telle announced the execution date in a social media post on Tuesday.
Hasan could still seek to delay the execution by filing a habeas petition in a civilian court. Such a petition would ask a court to review the legality of his detention and could significantly delay the process, legal experts said.
Who Is Nidal Malik Hasan?
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who held the rank of major, carried out the shooting at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009. He entered a medical building where soldiers were waiting in long queues for immunisations and medical clearance before deployment. He shouted “Allahu akbar”, Arabic for “God is great”, before opening fire with a laser-sighted handgun. He also shot at soldiers fleeing towards the parking lot. Hasan killed 13 people and injured 32 others in a shooting at the military base.
Hasan said he had acted to prevent the soldiers from going to Afghanistan and killing fellow Muslims. However, a military judge barred him from presenting that argument as a defence during his 2013 trial.
Hasan was left paralysed from the waist down after law enforcement officers shot him in the back. He now uses a wheelchair.
During the trial, Hasan dismissed his lawyers and represented himself. He began his defence by telling jurors that he was the gunman and said little else over the following three weeks. His court-appointed standby lawyers believed his conduct indicated that he wanted to receive a death sentence, as per an AP News report.
The planned livestream has also drawn attention to Trump's previous criticism of public executions in Iran.
The decision to livestream the execution has raised questions about the public nature of capital punishment in the US, particularly as the country continues to debate execution methods following a botched lethal injection involving Christa Pike in Tennessee, according to an AP News report.
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