Pentagon plan to livestream Fort Hood shooter's execution draws global outcry

What the Pentagon announced

The US Department of Defence plans to broadcast live the upcoming execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, the former army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the decision, stating that the public will be allowed to watch the execution, which is scheduled for 3 December at the Texas military base. If carried out, it will be the first US military execution by firing squad since 1945, and the first public execution held by the American government in nearly a century.

"People need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things," Hegseth said in a video posted to official Pentagon accounts, describing the firing squad as a fitting punishment. A Pentagon spokesperson added that President Donald Trump had approved Hegseth's recommendation.

UN says broadcast would amount to torture

The announcement triggered immediate international condemnation. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights warned that broadcasting the capital punishment live to the public crosses a grave legal threshold.

"The livestreaming of an execution is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture," the office said in a statement.

Human rights group Amnesty International noted that public executions are extremely rare worldwide, with only 17 recorded in 2025 across Iran and Afghanistan. Amnesty representative Justin Mazzola warned that broadcasting Hasan's death would "only compound the cruelty."

Religious leaders also spoke out. Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, called the plan a "barbaric promotion of a culture of death" and urged military leaders to reconsider.

Political pushback across party lines

The decision has split opinions inside Washington, where lawmakers from both parties expressed alarm at turning an execution into a broadcast spectacle.

Republican Representative Austin Scott supported executing Hasan but rejected the format. "Livestreaming executions is what jihadists do," Scott said. "America is better than that." Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley similarly warned that public executions align the United States with authoritarians, writing that "that is not the company we want to keep."

Democratic Senator Mark Kelly warned that the display could backfire globally. "Public executions are the kind of thing Iran and the Taliban do," Kelly said, adding that a public broadcast could grant Hasan the martyrdom he sought and create security risks for American service members abroad.

Uncertainty over the broadcast reached the White House on Friday, when Vice-President JD Vance expressed doubt over whether the livestream would actually go ahead. "I don't know that that's actually going to happen," Vance told reporters, adding that he would not tune in if it does. President Trump reiterated on Friday that Hasan "deserves" execution, but made no direct mention of the plan to broadcast it.

Legal hurdles remain

Hasan was convicted and sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013 for the mass shooting in a Fort Hood medical building that killed 13 soldiers and wounded 30 others. Hasan, who was paralysed from the waist down after being shot by responding officers, represented himself at trial and offered no defence.

Legal experts say significant hurdles remain before any execution takes place. Hasan's appellate review process is incomplete, and military defence lawyers are expected to seek a stay in federal court. Furthermore, Army regulations currently restrict execution witnesses to select journalists, official observers, and designated relatives, excluding members of the general public.