Fort Hood attacker's execution by firing squad will be livestreamed, Pentagon says

The public will be able to watch the execution of a former US Army major by firing squad, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said.

An official from the Defense Department told the BBC the execution of Nidal Hasan, who fatally shot 13 unarmed US soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, would be livestreamed.

The Pentagon had announced earlier this week that it would execute Hasan in the first military execution in more than 60 years.

"We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public," Hegseth said on Thursday. "Because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things."

Hegseth said in an interview with conservative TV outlet Real America's Voice that Hasan is "gonna get a firing squad of soldiers. As it should be".

The BBC has contacted the White House for comment on whether President Donald Trump supports a livestreamed public execution.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell had said on Monday that the defence secretary had made the recommendation and Trump approved it.

The execution is scheduled to take place at Fort Hood in Texas on 3 December, the secretary of the US Army said on Tuesday. It will be the first military execution by firing squad since the end of World War Two.

Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist from Virginia, admitted in court that he was the gunman in the deadliest ever non-combat attack on an American military base.

The shooting on 5 November 2009 took place in a crowded medical building where deploying soldiers were awaiting check-ups and vaccines.

At court Hasan apologised for "any mistakes". He said during his court martial in 2013 that he believed he was protecting Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

There is no modern-era precedent for having a public execution, said John Mills, a lawyer who works with inmates sentenced to death.

"It looks to me designed to be a grotesque spectacle," he said. "It's an unprecedented decision in the modern era, and so it is on uncertain legal terrain," he added.

A military execution requires approval from the US president, according to military law. It also requires appellate review, where a higher court inspects the decision, and a final judgment on its legality to move forward.

The appellate process for Hasan is not over, Mills said, and he is likely to seek review of his conviction and sentence in federal court, which would likely stay the execution.

As such, Mills said that he would be surprised if the execution happened.

"Seeking to make it livestreamed, a firing squad execution, is little more than attention-seeking by the Trump administration and is unlikely to occur, much less deliver any semblance of justice," he added.

Certain states require some form of public viewing of executions. Many states require journalists to be present, and the person due to be executed can invite people. Others also allow ordinary citizens to volunteer as witnesses.

But "there hasn't ever been a livestreamed execution," says Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University, who has studied US execution methods.

A livestreamed execution would "force a level of transparency that we have probably never seen before in this country", she says.

"More than half of the country wants the death penalty - even though that's on the decline - an argument could be made that 'if you want the death penalty, then we are going to show you how it's conducted in this country'. And people would have to realise exactly what's happening in a way that many people ignore."

Denno says there are important considerations for a livestream such as whether it would be age-redistricted and whether it would contravene the policies of the online platform that hosts the viewing.

It is unclear where the livestream will be available.

The last military execution took place in 1961, when a US Army private was hanged after being convicted of raping an 11-year-old Austrian girl. The execution was authorised by then-President Dwight D Eisenhower and took place despite the victim's family asking his successor, John F Kennedy, for clemency.

The last military execution by firing squad took place in January 1945, when a young US Army deserter, Eddie Slovik, was shot during the final months of the World War Two.

While Trump has never publicly advocated for a public execution, he has long supported the death penalty. In 1989, for example, he took out large ads in The New York Times calling for the execution of the Central Park Five - who had been convicted of rape and assault charges but were later exonerated.

The US government had not executed anyone for 17 years until the final year of Trump's first term as president, when the government conducted a flurry of 13 executions.

Upon returning to office last January, Trump swiftly overturned predecessor Joe Biden's moratorium on federal executions and signed an executive order aimed at "restoring" the death penalty and "protecting public safety".

With additional reporting by Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu