The Pentagon says the firing-squad execution of the Fort Hood shooter will be public and livestreamed
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, will be open to the public, and a Pentagon official said it will be livestreamed, according to AP, NBC, Politico, The Washington Post, USA Today, the Guardian, CBS and ABC. Trump approved a firing squad on Oct. 6 at Hegseth's recommendation, a Pentagon spokesman said. Hasan was convicted by a military jury in 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder. Earlier reports said the Secretary of the Army will set the time and place; we did not find a date in Thursday's coverage. It would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961, reports say.
Public, filmed executions are almost unknown in modern American law. The choice raises legal and ethical questions and will draw challenges over the method, the viewing and the process, on a case that has stood since 2013.
This is a matter for the military justice system, not civilians. Its effect will be on how the country thinks about capital punishment, a debate already running after the Pike execution failure in Tennessee.
The crime killed 13 people and the victims' families waited a decade; a public execution is a transparent one.
Turning a state killing into a broadcast crosses a line, and a firing squad is a method with its own history of problems.
Watch for the date and for the first court filing from Hasan's lawyers. Policy reportedly requires a waiting period after presidential approval, so a date this month would be a surprise.
DailyDrop U.S. No. 4 · October 8, 2026