Pentagon will livestream Nidal Hasan’s planned firing-squad execution

Hasan was sentenced for the shooting at Fort Hood that killed 13 people and injured 32. The Army says a court-martial jury found him guilty on 42 counts in 2013 and imposed the death sentence five days later.

How did the military approve the execution?

Military capital punishment places the president at the final approval stage. The Army says President Donald Trump approved Hasan’s sentence on Oct. 2, after the appellate process upheld his conviction and sentence. The Supreme Court denied Hasan’s request to review his court-martial conviction on March 31, 2025.

Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle directed the firing-squad execution on Oct. 6, and the Army announced the date the next day. Under Army Regulation 190-55, the Army secretary sets an execution date between 60 and 150 days after presidential approval. The Army’s scheduling announcement set Dec. 3 for the execution at Fort Hood.

That chain assigns distinct powers to elected and military leaders: the president approves a military death sentence, while Army leadership directs the method and schedules the date under the regulation. The Army says Hasan’s appeals have concluded, but military-law experts told the Associated Press that he could seek habeas review in civilian court, a move that could delay the scheduled execution.

The date is therefore a plan, not proof that the execution will happen on schedule. A civilian court challenge could bring another legal review before the government carries out the sentence.

The rarity of military executions underscores the scale of the decision. The last U.S. military execution was in 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged, the Associated Press reported. Hegseth has said the military has not used a firing squad to execute a service member since World War II.

What changes when the execution is livestreamed?

A livestream would extend access well beyond the limited group of witnesses usually allowed at an execution. That shifts the question from how the government carries out a death sentence to how broadly it should display that act.

Geoffrey Corn, a Texas Tech University law professor and former Army JAG officer, told CBS News that making the execution widely viewable “raises significant moral questions, above and beyond the questions related to the death penalty generally.” The CBS report on Hegseth’s public-viewing plan described Corn’s concern about expanding who can watch.

Public access can be framed as transparency, but a government broadcast is also a decision about the audience for state punishment. The Pentagon’s announcement makes that choice part of the execution plan, even as the details of the stream remain to come.

The Army’s decision also revives a practice that has been absent from the military for decades. Hegseth identified the firing squad as the method, while the Army set the date through its post-appeal process. The Pentagon’s announcement of the method reported the planned execution.

For now, the next milestones are the Pentagon’s promised information about the livestream and any further court proceedings Hasan may pursue. The Army’s scheduled date remains Dec. 3.