Pentagon Plans Livestream of Fort Hood Shooter's Execution

The US government's plan to broadcast the execution of a convicted military shooter has drawn international condemnation, with human rights officials, politicians, and religious leaders questioning the decision to make the killing public. The Pentagon confirmed that Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3, with the event livestreamed.

On Friday, the United Nations' Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights warned that broadcasting the execution would constitute a public execution and violate the absolute prohibition of torture. The proposal has prompted criticism in the United States and overseas, including comparisons with practices associated with authoritarian governments.

Hasan, now 56, was sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013 after being convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. Twelve of those killed and 30 of those wounded were soldiers, according to the case details.

The former Army psychiatrist opened fire with a handgun at a medical facility at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009, while soldiers waited for medical examinations before deployment. A police officer shot him during his arrest, leaving him partially paralyzed. Hasan now uses a wheelchair.

Under US military law, the president must approve an execution by firing squad. The Pentagon said President Donald Trump authorized Hasan's execution on the recommendation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth defended making the execution available to the public, arguing that viewers should understand the consequences of serious crimes. Asked about Hasan's final requests, he responded during an interview with conservative broadcaster Real America's Voice:

"Don't care. We'll see him on December 3." Hegseth said.

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the proposal in a social media post.

"A barbaric idea, beneath our dignity as a country. Push back on this." Clinton wrote.

Yassamin Ansari, the first Iranian American Democrat elected to the US Congress, also criticized the plan, linking it to what she described as authoritarian practices under Trump.

"In Trump's America, we're doing public executions now. WTF. This is what happens under brutal dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan.

It's all part of Trump's authoritarian takeover of the United States." Ansari posted.

In Britain, which abolished the death penalty in the 1960s, Equalities Minister and Labour Party chair Bridget Phillipson said the proposal was troubling while emphasizing that the decision belonged to the US government.

"They are a close ally. Does that mean that we support everything the US government does? No." Phillipson said during an appearance on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Phillipson also described the idea as "rather disturbing." Her comments reflected Britain's effort to distinguish its alliance with Washington from support for the planned broadcast.

Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, called for the plan to be reconsidered.

"Barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered." Coakley said.

Lawmakers from both major US political parties also objected to the proposed livestream. Adam Smith, the leading Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, criticized the plan's implications for the justice system.

"Disturbing and makes a mockery of our legal system." Smith said.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy characterized public executions as "medieval," while Republican Senator Thom Tillis said Hasan should receive the death penalty but opposed broadcasting the execution.

"Beyond disgusting." Tillis said, arguing that public executions were associated with oppressive regimes.

Ned Price, a former deputy to the US representative to the United Nations, warned that publicizing the execution could undermine efforts to combat terrorism. He argued that glorifying violence could encourage radicalization and provide extremist groups with propaganda.

"You can take it from those of us who've spent years working on terrorism: the surest way to spawn more radicalized zealots is to glorify violence, embrace a cult of death, and create a martyr for the cause." Price wrote on X.

Price also compared the proposed broadcast with tactics used by al-Qaida and ISIS, warning that the spectacle could damage America's international image and expose the country to additional security risks.

"Or take it from [al-Qaida] and ISIS, whose tactics offer the closest modern-day approximation of Hegseth's proposal. Either way, it's hard to conjure a more vivid example of his trademark performative bravado, which routinely damages America's image and, in this case, so ghoulishly leaves us more vulnerable." Price wrote.

The planned execution would mark the US military's first firing-squad execution since 1945, when Army Private Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion during World War II. The last military execution of any kind occurred in 1961, when John Bennett was hanged.

Public executions have largely disappeared worldwide. Amnesty International recorded at least 17 in 2025, including 11 in Iran and six in Taliban-run Afghanistan. Experts said no other country was known to televise or livestream legal executions.

US courts have previously blocked attempts by media organizations to televise executions. The 2001 execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was made available to victims' relatives through closed-circuit television but was not broadcast publicly.

The proposal also comes amid renewed scrutiny of capital punishment following the botched lethal injection of Tennessee death-row prisoner Christa Pike the previous week. Her lawyers said she awoke in a hospital angry and confused, remained seriously ill, and was shackled to her hospital bed.

Military law specialist Eugene Fidell of Yale Law School said Hasan could seek legal action to prevent the public display of his death. Elisabeth Semel, co-director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, also raised concerns about the announcement, according to the report.