Hegseth says firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter will be ‘public’

What the report says

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the planned execution of former Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, the man convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, would be open for the public to watch. Al Jazeera reported that Hegseth made the comments in an interview with Real America’s Voice, describing the decision as a way to show the “serious consequences” of such crimes. A Pentagon official also told Al Jazeera the execution would be livestreamed, though further details were not immediately provided.

According to the report, Hasan is scheduled to be executed by firing squad at Fort Hood in Texas on December 3 at 1 p.m. Central time, the same time as the original attack. Hasan was sentenced to death in 2013 after a military jury found him guilty on 45 counts tied to premeditated murder and attempted murder. The article says he opened fire at an army processing center on the base, killing 13 people.

The report adds that President Donald Trump approved the firing squad method earlier in the week and that the Trump administration has moved to allow firing squad, gas asphyxiation and electrocution as federal execution methods. Al Jazeera noted that it was unclear whether military officials, spectators or troops would attend in person, and that U.S. rules call for at least two media outlets to serve as witnesses. It also provided context that televised executions have not happened in the United States, and that the last U.S. military firing squad execution was in 1945.