Pentagon Plans Livestream of Hasan Execution on December 3

The U.S. military plans to livestream the December 3 execution of former Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan by firing squad, a decision announced by the Pentagon that has drawn condemnation from United Nations officials and human rights advocates. Hasan was sentenced to death for killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in the November 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.

The planned broadcast would mark the first known livestream or public broadcast of a lawful execution, according to death penalty experts consulted by Reuters. It would also be the U.S. military's first execution by firing squad since 1945, when soldier Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion during World War II.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced the plan in a video posted Thursday on official Pentagon accounts on X. A Pentagon official speaking anonymously to AFP confirmed that the execution would be livestreamed and said further details would follow.

Hegseth said the broadcast was intended to make the consequences of serious crimes visible to the public. The plan reverses a longstanding practice in which executions in the United States have generally taken place behind prison walls, away from public view.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the proposed broadcast on Friday, warning that publicizing an execution in this way would violate international human rights protections.

"The livestreaming of an execution is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture," the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a message sent to AFP.

Shabia Mantoo, a spokesperson for the U.N. human rights office, also addressed the issue in Geneva, describing public executions as incompatible with protections against cruel treatment and punishment.

"Public executions constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," Mantoo told reporters.

Human rights advocates also criticized the decision. Kerry Moscogiuri, chief executive of Amnesty International U.K., called the plan a serious escalation in the public presentation of state executions.

"To create some kind of theatre around the State taking someone's life is barbaric and deeply shocking," Moscogiuri told Reuters.

In the United States, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy criticized the announcement in an interview with CNN, distinguishing the country's existing death penalty system from the proposal to broadcast an execution.

"I understand that in this country we have the death penalty, but public executions (are) medieval," Murphy said.

The proposal departs from international practice, where executions are generally conducted outside public view. Amnesty International recorded at least 17 public executions in 2025, including six in Afghanistan and 11 in Iran.

Public executions were once common in the United States but largely disappeared during the 20th century. Death penalty experts cited by Reuters identified 1936 as the year of the last legally sanctioned public execution in the country.

Executions have occasionally reached global audiences through recordings released after the event. The 2006 hanging of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, for example, became widely visible after official and unofficial footage circulated online and through broadcasters, but the execution was not livestreamed.

Internet distribution has made violent execution footage more difficult to contain. Governments and technology companies have worked to remove videos circulated by extremist organizations and other violent groups, while rapid copying and reposting can allow material to spread before moderation systems intervene.

New Zealand's chief censor said authorities would have limited practical ability to prevent people in the country from accessing the planned broadcast while it was underway. Saudi Arabia, which historically conducted executions before spectators, prohibited recording them, and public executions there had largely ceased by 2019.

Hasan's case stems from the November 2009 attack at Fort Hood, where he opened fire on military personnel inside a medical building. Twelve of those killed and 30 of the wounded were soldiers, according to the National Post. Hasan was shot and partially paralyzed by a civilian police officer who responded to the attack.

A military jury sentenced Hasan to death in 2013. He represented himself during the trial, called no witnesses, gave no testimony and did not attempt to deny the charges. Court-appointed defense attorneys expressed concern that he was seeking execution.

The trial also examined Hasan's opposition to U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and his online communications with Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen and radical cleric who was later killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen.

The Death Penalty Information Center says the U.S. military has executed 135 soldiers since 1916. Although Hasan's planned execution would be the first military firing squad execution since Slovik's death in 1945, the last U.S. military execution overall occurred in 1961, when John Bennett was hanged for rape and attempted murder.