US to livestream execution of Fort Hood shooter convicted in mass killing

The Pentagon says it plans to livestream the US military’s upcoming firing squad execution of a man convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009 — a broadcast that would break new ground for executions in the United States.

Nidal Hasan, a former US army psychiatrist, is set to become the first person executed by firing squad by the US military since 1945.

The execution is scheduled for 3 December at the same Texas base where Hasan opened fire inside a medical facility with a laser-sighted handgun.

The announcement lands amid a fresh national argument over capital punishment, intensified by last week’s failed lethal injection attempt on a Tennessee woman.

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“It will be livestreamed. Details will follow,” a Pentagon official told Reuters, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — who pushed to have Hasan executed by firing squad — also confirmed the plan to livestream in a post on X.

In the past, media organisations have tried to televise executions in the United States, only to be stopped by court rulings.

Experts say no other internationally recognised state is known to broadcast a lawful execution via television or livestream.

Public executions themselves are now unusual across much of the world.

Among the countries reported to have carried out public executions in recent years are Iran and Taliban-run Afghanistan.

In Ireland, executions were moved onto prison grounds following a UK act of parliament in 1868.

The last execution carried out in Ireland was that of Michael Manning, for murder, in 1954. The death penalty was removed for all crimes except capital murder in 1964, and then abolished entirely in 1990.

Pete Hegseth told the Human Events Daily programme ‘we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it’

In the United States, extrajudicial lynchings — often carried out by white mobs against black Americans — remained public spectacles into the 20th century. ‌

According to death penalty experts, the most recent legally sanctioned public execution in the United States took place ⁠in 1936.

That year, thousands gathered to watch the hanging of a young black man convicted of raping a white woman.

Mr Hegseth said on the Human Events Daily programme that holding Hasan’s execution by firing squad at Fort Hood on a Thursday at 1pm — matching the approximate time, day of the week and place of the 2009 attack — was a “no-brainer”.

“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public because people need to understand that … there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” Mr Hegseth said.

When asked whether Hasan had made any last requests, Mr Hegseth replied: “Don’t care.

“We’ll see him on 3 December.”

President Donald Trump approved the execution by firing squad

A military jury sentenced Hasan to death in August 2013 after finding ‌him guilty of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder.

The Fort Hood shooting occurred only weeks before Hasan, now 56, was due to deploy to Afghanistan.

Police shot Hasan during his arrest, leaving him partially paralysed and dependent on a wheelchair.

US military law requires presidential approval for an execution by firing ⁠squad.

The Pentagon said on Monday that President Donald Trump granted that approval at Mr Hegseth’s recommendation.

The White House declined to say whether Mr Trump supported the livestreaming itself, directing questions to the Pentagon.

Death Penalty Action, an organisation opposed to capital punishment, said Hasan’s death sentence would mark the first military execution since 1961.

The Death Penalty Information Center said the 1961 military execution was carried out by hanging.

The same group reported that the most recent known firing squad executions by the US ‌military took place in 1945.

“It would be extremely, extremely strange” to livestream the execution, said Eugene Fidell, a lawyer, author and military law expert who lectures at Yale Law School.

Mr Fidell noted that firing squads have deep roots in US military justice, but said he was not aware of any precedent for televising or livestreaming an execution.

If Hasan sought to prevent the broadcast, Mr Fidell said, he would have to file suit in federal court.

“The Supreme Court has never addressed this question and it’s an ⁠interesting question whether the current Supreme Court would put on their originalist hat and say ‘Well, it was OK in 1790, so what the hell?'” he said.

Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital as Tennessee officials attempted to put her to death

Jonathan Lurie, an author and historian who specialises in military justice, said he saw no persuasive argument for making the execution public.

“What’s the point of it? Who would want to see that?” Mr Lurie said.

At least five states still authorise firing squads in law, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

South Carolina, in 2025, carried out the United States’ first firing squad execution in 15 years.

The Trump administration recently expanded the menu of execution methods for the most serious federal crimes, adding death by firing squad alongside electrocution and gas asphyxiation.

That expansion was driven partly by the growing difficulty of obtaining drugs used for lethal injections — a method that has also proven difficult to administer in some cases.

In Tennessee last week, an attempt to execute a woman for the first time in more than two centuries unravelled when prison staff mishandled efforts to deliver a lethal injection, leaving death row inmate Christa Pike alive ‌but hospitalised.

Her lawyers said on Wednesday she woke up “angry and confused” in hospital.

They said she had taken limited steps after waking and was able to eat for the first time.

However, her attorneys said in a statement that questions remained about what comes next for her, physically and legally.

Texas carried out first US execution since failed lethal injection

A Texas man convicted of fatally shooting a shop employee was executed on Wednesday night, becoming the 30th person put to death in the US this year and the first since the failed lethal injection attempt involving Pike.

Jamaal Howard, 46, was pronounced dead at 8.03pm local time after receiving a lethal dose of pentobarbital at the state prison in Huntsville.

Howard was convicted in the killing of Vickie Swartout, 42, during a 2000 robbery captured on surveillance video.

When the warden asked whether he had final words, Howard offered repeated apologies to members of Ms Swartout’s family, who observed through a window only feet from the death chamber.

“I wish that you accept my apology and I wish for your forgiveness,” he said shortly before the injection began.

“I’m sorry for what happened. I wish you can learn to forgive me one of these days.”

He also thanked relatives and friends and said he loved them, adding he was “in a good state of mind to find peace and the Lord, so I thank y’all”.

He ended with: “Hey, enjoy life, and peace to y’all.”

As the pentobarbital took effect, Howard took several breaths and then gasped.

About 30 seconds later, he stopped moving and was pronounced dead 19 minutes afterward.

Texas has executed seven people so far in 2026, including Howard, and has two additional executions scheduled later this year.

Howard’s lawyers sought unsuccessfully to stop the execution, arguing he was intellectually disabled and warning that he faced risks like those raised in Pike’s case because both states use pentobarbital for lethal injections.

Trial evidence included surveillance footage showing Howard shooting Ms Swartout.

Court records say Howard, who was 20 at the time, stole $114 and a pack of cigarettes from the shop in Silsbee, a small rural community about 160km north-east of Houston.

Florida has carried out 16 executions so far this year, more than any other state.

Tennessee Republican governor Bill Lee has suspended the one remaining execution scheduled to take place in the state this year.