Fort Hood shooter faces firing squad as livestream plan disputed

Nidal Malik Hasan, the former US Army psychiatrist convicted over the 2009 killings of 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas, faces execution by firing squad after President Donald Trump approved the method, according to Al Jazeera. The Pentagon has also said the public would be able to watch a livestream if the execution proceeds, though Trump had not decided whether to permit that feed as of October 9, The Japan Times reported.²³¹

Execution plans

Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, had sought presidential approval for Hasan's execution in September 2025, according to Al Jazeera. A Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, announced the approval in a statement on X, saying: "Judgement day for Hasan has finally come". Al Jazeera reported that Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle will determine when the execution takes place and that Hasan is now being held at Fort Leavenworth's US Disciplinary Barracks in Kansas.²

The proposal would mark the first US military execution in more than 60 years, according to the BBC and Al Jazeera. The last military execution was in 1961, when John Bennett was hanged, Al Jazeera reported. Legal experts told the BBC that further litigation could mean Hasan is never executed; Al Jazeera likewise reported that he could seek delays through the civilian federal court system.¹²

The Fort Hood case

Hasan carried out the shooting at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009, according to Al Jazeera. The outlet reported that 13 people were killed and 32 wounded during about 10 minutes. The Japan Times described Hasan as a former army psychiatrist found guilty by a US military court of fatally shooting 13 people at the Texas base.²³

In 2013, Hasan was convicted on 13 counts of premeditated murder and jurors recommended a death sentence, according to Al Jazeera. According to the outlet, the Army Court of Criminal Appeals left his death sentence in place in 2020, followed by the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in 2023. The same source reported that in March 2025, the Supreme Court rejected a required request for judicial review.²

Dispute over public viewing

The BBC reported that the Pentagon said earlier that week that the execution could be streamed for public viewing, and Hegseth said the broadcast would demonstrate the consequences of such crimes. But The Japan Times reported on October 9 that Trump had not yet decided whether to allow the feed. Vice President JD Vance also expressed doubt, saying: "I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen".¹³

The prospect of a public broadcast has drawn opposition from Republican lawmakers, religious leaders and international observers, according to The Japan Times. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy called the proposal "disgusting", while Republican Senator Thom Tillis said: "It should not be happening in America." Legal experts told the BBC that court challenges could also block the livestream.¹³

A survivor's view

Alonzo Lunsford, a former US Army sergeant who survived after being shot seven times, supports execution by firing squad. He told the BBC that the "method is befitting" and said lethal injection would be doing Hasan a favour. Lunsford said he intended to attend in person and believed victims' relatives and survivors should be permitted to watch.¹

Lunsford nevertheless opposed an uncensored public broadcast, telling the BBC an execution was "not something you should view for entertainment purposes". He said Hasan had targeted personnel in a medical facility because they did not carry weapons there. The BBC reported that, if carried out with public access, the event could be the first public execution in the United States in almost a century.¹