Hegseth Orders Public Livestream of Fort Hood Shooter's Firing-Squad Execution, Set for Dec. 3

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon will make public the Dec. 3 execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army major convicted of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. The execution, scheduled for 1 p.m. at Fort Hood, Texas, will be carried out by an Army firing squad -- a method the military has not used since World War II -- and streamed publicly. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Hegseth recommended the plan and that President Trump approved it.

The decision marks a sharp break from decades of execution practice, which has treated capital punishment as a closed, witnessed-only procedure rather than a broadcast event. Geoffrey Corn, a Texas Tech law professor and former Army JAG officer, said livestreaming the execution "raises significant moral questions" and risks echoing a period in American history the country has moved beyond.

The execution is scheduled but has not yet occurred, and no legal challenge to the livestream plan had been reported as of early October. Hasan's attorney had not responded to a request for comment.