Hegseth says he wants to ensure 'people are able to watch it;' firing squad is planned
By Lara Seligman and Anne Flaherty
The Pentagon said it planned to livestream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, a former officer who admitted to killing 13 people in a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood Army base in Texas.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in an interview with a conservative news outlet aired Thursday that he had wanted to ensure "people are able to watch it" because "people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things."
The execution is scheduled to take place on Dec. 3 at Fort Hood.
Hegseth said it would be carried out on a Thursday at 1 p.m. Central time, which was the same day of the week and around the same time of day Hasan opened fire at the base on Nov. 5, 2009.
He called the decision to execute Hasan by firing squad a "no-brainer."
Hasan's execution would be the first by the U.S. military in more than 65 years. A servicemember hasn't been executed by firing squad since 1945.
"It hadn't been since World War II since we've done that. Well, I kind of like the mentality we had in World War II, which was: 'win,'" Hegseth told Real America's Voice.
"It was a radical Islamist attack in uniform inside the ranks, and so he's going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be," Hegseth added.
Under existing Army regulation, an execution can be attended by select members of the public, including family members of the victims and members of the media. But executions aren't witnessed by the broader public.
When asked for comment, a Defense Department official said in a statement that "it will be livestreamed" without providing further details.
Another Pentagon official said the decision to use a firing squad wasn't related to potentially limited access to the lethal drug pentobarbital, which was used last month in the botched execution in Tennessee of convicted murderer Christa Pike. Pharmaceutical companies no longer provide drugs for executions. So U.S. states have turned to loosely or even unregulated sources for the deadly cocktails, which experts say make lethal injections less reliable.
Hasan, a former Army major who worked as a psychiatrist, was convicted of multiple counts of premeditated murder and attempted murder in connection with the shooting, one of the worst soldier-on-soldier crimes in U.S. military history.
The 13-member jury, composed of officers of equal rank or higher to Hasan, deliberated whether he deserved death or life in prison for about two hours before announcing the death sentence.
Only a U.S. president can approve and order the execution of a servicemember. Hegseth recommended that Hasan face a firing squad, and President Trump approved the plan Oct. 2, Pentagon officials said.
Army regulation requires an execution take place no sooner than 60 days and no later than 150 days after the president approves a death sentence. In the case of Hasan, his execution at 1 p.m. Central time on Dec. 3 would be almost immediately after the 60-day mark.
Hasan, who is paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by law enforcement during his attack, is being held on death row at the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
Hasan is one of only four people on the military's death row and would be the first executed in 65 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The last military execution, in 1961, occurred by hanging.