Why the US is bringing back firing squads

What the report says

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the military will livestream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that killed 13 unarmed soldiers. According to BBC World News, it would be the US Army’s first firing-squad execution since 1945 and comes as the death penalty is again under scrutiny in the United States.

The BBC says the move follows a recent failed lethal injection attempt in another case, highlighting wider concerns about botched executions. Death Penalty Information Center figures cited by the BBC suggest there have been dozens of botched executions over the past 50 years, most of them involving lethal injection. Medical experts and death-penalty researchers told the broadcaster that no execution method is free from the risk of serious pain if something goes wrong.

The article also sets Hasan’s case in a broader trend. Some states have reintroduced or expanded older execution methods, including the electric chair, gas chamber and firing squad, while others have adopted nitrogen gas. Idaho has recently used a firing squad as its primary method, and several states still authorize it. The BBC reports that this renewed interest reflects difficulties obtaining lethal-injection drugs, as well as public and legal disputes over how executions are carried out.

The story adds that President Donald Trump has backed federal use of the death penalty again, helping push the issue back into national debate. More broadly, the article argues the US is revisiting methods once seen as outdated because officials are searching for alternatives amid repeated execution failures and continuing opposition from medical groups.