WASHINGTON — In an unprecedented move within modern American military justice, the United States is weighing plans to publicly broadcast the scheduled execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, according to senior defense officials.
Hasan, a former U.S. Army major and psychiatrist who massacred 13 people during a 2009 mass shooting at Texas’s Fort Hood military base, is scheduled to face a firing squad on December 3, following formal execution authorization granted by President Donald Trump upon the recommendation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The details of the planned execution were outlined by Secretary Hegseth during an interview on the Human Events Daily podcast released on Thursday. Hegseth confirmed that the execution has been slated for Thursday, December 3, at 1:00 p.m., noting that the timing and location were chosen to symbolically mirror the circumstances of the 2009 massacre.
Characterizing the move as an effort to maximize deterrence, Hegseth advocated for unprecedented public transparency surrounding the execution. “We want to make sure people can see this and that it is 100 percent public. People need to clearly understand the ultimate consequences of such heinous crimes,” Hegseth remarked, calling the decision a straightforward measure of accountability.
A senior Pentagon official, cited by international broadcaster TRT World, confirmed that broadcasting a military execution live would mark an entirely unprecedented event in U.S. legal and military history. While President Trump has formally authorized the use of a firing squad, the specific operational modalities and site logistics remain delegated to the Secretary of the Army.
Hasan is currently incarcerated on death row at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. On November 5, 2009, he opened fire inside a soldier readiness processing center at Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos), killing 12 active-duty service members and one retired soldier, while wounding 32 others. Following his capture, Hasan claimed the attack was carried out in retaliation for American military campaigns across Muslim-majority nations.
A military court-martial convicted Hasan of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder in 2013, sentencing him to death.
If carried out as scheduled, Hasan’s execution will mark the first U.S. military execution in over six decades, since Army Private John A. Bennett was hanged in 1961. Furthermore, it will represent the first time the U.S. armed forces have executed a service member by firing squad since 1945.