Pentagon says firing squad execution of Fort Hood gunman will be livestreamed

It is a stunning revelation about plans for the first military execution in more than 65 years after defence secretary Pete Hegseth had described it as being “public”.

The Army announced this week that the execution would take place at Fort Hood on December 3 after Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting at the military base in 2009.

Mr Hegseth, speaking to the conservative TV outlet Real America’s Voice on Wednesday, said: “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public.”

Officials in the Pentagon clarified on Thursday that the execution would be livestreamed and that more details would follow.

The revelation from Mr Hegseth about the public nature of the execution — let alone one as violent as a firing squad — has raised further questions about how the death penalty is carried out in the US, especially after the botched lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee.

Hasan could choose to resist execution and file a habeas petition — a legal request to review the legality of a detention — in civilian court, which could significantly delay the execution, experts said.

“It frankly might outlast the current administration, and who knows if the next one will have the same penchant for executions,” said Eugene R Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School specialising in military law.

Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert and law professor at Fordham University, said livestreaming an execution could make the process “much more transparent” and inform the public about all that capital punishment entails.

Those are benefits that she said would be useful at a time when Pike’s botched execution has raised fresh questions about the manner by which criminal defendants are put to death for their crimes.

“I think it could possibly be a good idea because it would be transparent and the public would be fully aware that it’s happening,” she said.

When many states have had difficulty carrying out lethal injections due to difficulty accessing drugs or finding medical professionals willing to participate in executions, firing squads are coming to be seen as a less inhumane alternative, said Brenner Fissell, a professor at Villanova Law and vice president of the National Institute of Military Justice.

“Firing squads can be a quicker, cleaner, more precise way to execute a prisoner,” he said.

“I don’t think that’s what’s motivating this. There’s a perceived masculinity and military-ness to firing squads that is part of the aura Hegseth is trying to emphasise — the ‘lethality culture’.”

Elisabeth Semel, co-director of the Death Penalty Clinic at UC Berkeley Law, said Mr Hegseth’s announcement raises a host of legal and public policy questions, including concerns for the dignity of the defendant, who will be eligible to view the execution and what the Trump administration has in mind in opting for an unusual spectacle.

Though there has been long-running discussion about the idea of televising an execution, she said: “I don’t recall a situation in which it was initiated by the government. I think that also raises serious questions about what is the motivation of the government.”

US President Donald Trump, who approved Hasan’s execution, has previously been critical of public executions in Iran, at times using the possibility of protesters being killed by the Iranian government as a possible rationale for military action that preceded his ultimate choice to attack Iran on February 28.

In his State of the Union address just days before launching the Iran war, Mr Trump reiterated: “We stopped them from hanging a lot of them with the threat of serious violence.”

The White House on Thursday referred questions about the plans for the livestreamed execution to the Pentagon.

Mr Hegseth was asked on Wednesday if Hasan had made any final requests or reached out to the Trump administration. The Pentagon chief replied: “Don’t care. We’ll see him on December 3.”

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who held the rank of major, walked into a medical building on November 5, 2009, where soldiers were waiting in long lines to receive immunisations and medical clearance for deployment.

He shouted “Allahu akbar” — Arabic for “God is great!” — and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun. He also shot at the backs of soldiers fleeing towards the parking lot.

Hasan said it was an effort to stop them from going to Afghanistan and killing his fellow Muslims. A military judge barred him from presenting that as a defence during his 2013 trial. Hasan was left paralysed from the waist down after being shot in the back by law enforcement, and he now uses a wheelchair.