The United States will broadcast live the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former military psychiatrist convicted for the death of 13 people in the attack carried out in 2009 at the Fort Hood base in Texas. A Pentagon official confirmed on Thursday, October 8, to Reuters that the execution will be streamed online, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the procedure would be public.
The execution is scheduled for December 3 at Fort Hood, the same military base where Hasan opened fire on military personnel and staff at the center where he worked. The condemned will be executed by a firing squad, according to information released by U.S. authorities.
The broadcast announced by the Pentagon would set an unprecedented precedent in the United States, where there are no known precedents of legal executions broadcast live online.
Hegseth defends that the execution be public
The Defense Secretary explained that the public will be able to witness the execution and justified the decision with the argument that society must know the consequences of crimes of this nature. Hegseth made these statements in an interview with the media Real America's Voice, before a Department of Defense official confirmed to the media that there will be a live broadcast. For now, the Pentagon has not detailed how the broadcast will be organized, what platform will be used, or what conditions will be established for access to it.
Hasan's execution will also represent the first execution carried out by the U.S. Army since 1945, according to experts cited by Reuters. The last military execution in the United States took place in 1961, according to published information about the case.