The first military execution in more than six decades will be livestreamed, Rolling Stone has confirmed.
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told conservative TV outlet Real America’s Voice News that the execution of Nidal Hasan by firing squad will take place at Fort Hood on Dec. 3. Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a 2009 shooting at the military base.
When asked about the decision process, Hegseth said, “No brainer. Execution by firing squad.” He added, “We’ll make sure that people are able to to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that this is a there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”
President Donald Trump approved the execution by firing squad on Monday. The U.S. military has not carried out a death penalty execution since 1961 and the announcement has raised concerns among military law experts about whether the mandated process for setting an execution was followed.
Trump has made clear that he is a big proponent of the death penalty, and has long sought to expand its use. His first administration executed more people in its final six months (13) than the previous 10 presidential administration executed combined, and Rolling Stone reported in 2023 that Trump expressed a desire to bring back firing squads, hangings, and even execution by guillotine, should he retake office. Then, back in April, Trump‘s Justice Department announced that is was bringing back firing squads as a method to execute people sentenced to death.
“He had a particular affinity for the firing squad, because it seemed more dramatic, rather than how we do it, putting a syringe in people and putting them to sleep,” a former White House official told Rolling Stone in 2023. “He was big on the idea of executing large numbers of drug dealers and drug lords because he’d say, ‘These people don’t care about anything,’ and that they run their drug empire and their deals from prison anyways, and then they get back out on the street, get all their money again, and keep committing crimes … and therefore, they need to be eradicated, not jailed.”
When discussing the critics concerns and the financial costs of bringing back executions by firing squads, Robin M. Maher, executive director of Death Penalty Information Center, previously told Rolling Stone, “Protocols will need to be developed, and new facilities will need to be built to enable these methods of execution to be used. It will require a tremendous investment of taxpayer dollars and government resources in implementing these new methods of execution. And I don’t think that the American public is going to be thrilled with the idea that is where their resources and taxpayer dollars are being spent.”
