The Pentagon confirmed that the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan for the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting will be livestreamed on December 3, 2026.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the livestream during an interview on Thursday, calling it a straightforward measure so people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things. The United States faces mounting international criticism over the decision to broadcast the execution of the former Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others at the Texas military base on November 5, 2009.
Pentagon Sets Firing Squad For December 3
President Donald Trump authorized the use of a firing squad for Hasan’s sentence, fulfilling a push by the administration to revive alternative capital punishment methods. The execution is scheduled for 1 p.m. local time on December 3 at Fort Hood, timed to coincide with the hour the shooting took place seventeen years ago.
At the time of the shooting, Alonzo Lunsford had served in the Army since 1990 and was stationed as a sergeant at Fort Hood, before later accepting his Purple Heart decorations from then-Secretary of the Army John McHugh in 2015. Under the Army, the last execution took place at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where a military jury convicted Hasan of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder, after which he was held there. The last service member put to death by a military firing squad was Army Pvt. Eddie Slovik in France in 1945 for desertion, while the military’s last overall execution was the hanging of Pvt. John Bennett in 1961.
United Nations Issues Torture Warnings
UN officials noted that public executions are otherwise recorded only in nations such as Iran and Taliban-run Afghanistan. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a warning stating that broadcasting the killing would be tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture. International bodies reacted sharply to the announcement.
Bridget Phillipson, the UK’s equalities minister and Labour party chair, told the BBC that she found the concept rather disturbing. In Australia, lawmakers across the political spectrum united in rejecting the prospect of showing the US execution within the country, though the national eSafety regulator admitted it lacks power to block the material prospectively. Australia’s Assistant Minister for Defence, Peter Khalil, a national security expert who worked in Iraq’s transitional government in 2003, stated that he did not agree with livestreaming the execution, while an unlikely alliance emerged in Canberra as lawmakers debated new legislation protecting users against serious harms. Political leaders among close US allies also distanced themselves from the plan.
Lawmakers Debate Broadcast Plan
Democratic Senator Jack Reed, the top member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called on the administration to reconsider, questioning whether the plan mimics methods used by ISIS. Domestic reaction cut across party lines in Washington.
Representative Austin Scott of Georgia wrote on social media that while he supports the death sentence, live-streaming executions is what jihadists do. America is better than that. Conversely, Republican Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee praised the decision, posting that public execution is what this terrorist deserves. Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, stated that it was a barbaric promotion of a culture of death that must be reconsidered. Some Republican lawmakers joined the criticism.
George Stratton Jr., the father of survivor George Stratton III, told the local newspaper that it was about time the killer faced justice. Alonzo Lunsford, a former Army staff sergeant who survived being shot seven times by Hasan, supported the death sentence and the firing squad method, but objected to the public livestream. Survivors of the 2009 shooting expressed mixed views on the unprecedented broadcast.
Federal Court Challenges Loom
Legal specialists note that habeas litigation for military capital cases can stretch on for years or even decades, pointing to military death row inmate Ronald Gray, whose execution was approved by President George W. Bush in 2008 but remains stalled by ongoing court challenges. Hasan has not exhausted his remaining legal avenues and has yet to file a habeas corpus review in federal civilian court. Despite the Pentagon’s announced date, legal experts emphasize that an execution is not imminent.
Military.com reached out for comment to the Pentagon and the Army regarding the execution timeline, the logistics of a method unused since 1945, and the current status of Hasan’s remaining legal appeals. Whether Hasan challenges the military proceeding in civilian court determines if the proceedings go past December.
