The execution of Nidal Hasan, the perpetrator of the 2009 Fort Hood massacre, is to take place on December 3 by firing squad of the US Army. The plan to broadcast it live has sparked objections from politicians of both parties.
The decision on the type of punishment was announced on Monday, October 5, by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell. According to his statement on X, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended, and President Donald Trump approved, death by firing squad for Hasan, a former major and psychiatrist. The date and location were to be set by the Secretary of the Army. As CBS News reports, citing a message to the victims’ families, the execution has been scheduled for December 3 at Fort Hood.
Date and broadcast
According to Al Jazeera, Hegseth announced on Thursday, October 8, that the execution will take place on December 3 at 1:00 p.m. local time, the same time the attack occurred in 2009. That is 8:00 p.m. in Poland. Hegseth also confirmed that it will be broadcast. As CBS News reports, he justified this by saying that “people need to understand” that such acts have serious consequences.
According to NPR, it would be the first public execution in the US since the 1930s. On Friday, October 9, Trump said he had approved the execution “absolutely”. As NBC News reports, regarding the broadcast, he said that “a decision is being made”. He added that Hasan “will be killed” by the firing squad. As of publication, no final administration decision on the broadcast had been found.
Criticism within the Republican camp too
Republican senators criticised the idea. Thom Tillis called it “beyond disgusting” and wrote that public executions are a practice of dictatorships such as Iran and Afghanistan. Lisa Murkowski warned that a broadcast would give the convicted man “the martyrdom he seeks”. As The Hill reports, the broadcast was also criticised by Democrat Jack Reed, the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, among others. He called the broadcast a “barbaric spectacle”. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops also objected, and according to The Media Line, so did the UN.
Vice President JD Vance said he did not know whether the broadcast would happen, and added that if it did, he would not watch it. As Al Jazeera reported, on Sunday, October 11, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the broadcast posed no risk. According to him, no one has to watch it.
Sentence and historical context
Hasan was sentenced to death in August 2013 by a military jury. The attack of November 5, 2009, at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center in Fort Hood, Texas, killed 13 people: 12 active-duty soldiers and one retired soldier. 32 people were wounded. During the trial, Hasan explained that he wanted to stop soldiers from deploying to Afghanistan and killing Muslims. Police officers shot him, and he has been paralysed from the waist down ever since.
If the sentence is carried out, it will be the first execution by the US military since 1961, when Private John Bennett was hanged. It would also be the first military execution by firing squad since 1945, when Private Eddie Slovik was shot. Experts cited by NPR note that Hasan could delay the execution by years by filing a habeas corpus petition in federal court.
What comes next
The verdict is a foreign matter for Poland, but it has political significance: it highlights the dispute surrounding Hegseth, including within Trump’s own camp. Whether the December 3 execution will be broadcast will be decided by the administration. It is unclear whether Hasan will still pursue the court route.
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