The U.S. Army intends to execute former Major Nidal Malik Hasan via firing squad at Fort Hood. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the event will be livestreamed to emphasize the penalties for terrorism.
A Thursday 1 p.m. execution at Fort Hood
The planned execution of Nidal Malik Hasan is designed to mirror the timing of his original crime. According to the report, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stated the execution will take place on a Thursday at 1 o'clock, the same time Hasan carried out the 2009 terror attack at Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas. That attack resulted in the deaths of 13 unarmed soldiers and left 32 others wounded.
The use of a firing squad, consisting of soldiers with rifles, marks a departure from the Army's recent history. While the military has handed down death sentences in a few cases since 2009, the report says the Army has not actually carried out any executions during that interval.
The first official U.S. broadcast of a killing since 1936
By livestreaming the event, the U.S . government is adopting a practice not seen officially in the United States since 1936. In that year, the state of Kentucky conducted a public hanging of a Black man. The report notes that such public displays of capital punishment are now primarily associated with authoritarian governments, including those of North Korea, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, or the Taliban-controlled goveernment in Afghanistan.
This shift toward public broadcasting places the U.S. military in a category of entities that use video for propaganda or intimidation. The report suggests this approach is more reminiscent of terror groups like the Islamic State or mass shooters who broadcast their crimes than of modern Western judicial standards.
Pete Hegseth's World War II 'win' mentality
The decision to publicize the execution was detailed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth during an interview with Jack Posobiec. Hegseth argued that the public needs to see the event to understand that "there's serious consequences" for terrorism. He explicitly linked this approach to a mindset from the World War II era, stating a preference for the mentality of that period, which he characterized as a drive to "win."
This framing suggests that the execution is being treated as more than a legal requirement;it is being positioned as a symbolic victory. By turning a judicial sentence into a public re-enactment of the attack's timing and location, the Pentagon is emphasizing the performative nature of the punishment.
Eugene R. Fidell's warning on habeas petitions
The legality of broadcasting a state-sanctioned killing remains an open question. Eugene R. Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School, told the AP that Nidal Malik Hasan could potentially file a habeas petition to challenge the legality of the livestream. As the report says , such a legal struggle could potentially last longer than the current administration's term.
Beyond the legality of the broadcast, it remains unclear if the Pentagon had a formal broadcasting plan in place before Secretary Hegseth's interview with Posobiec, or if the idea was proposed spontaneously during the conversation. Furthermore, the source does not provide a response from the legal team representing Nidal Malik Hasan regarding these specific plans.
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