Nidal Hasan Execution: Firing Squad at Fort Hood on Dec 3

Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army major convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad at the Texas base on 3 December at 1pm Central — the same hour as the attack. The Pentagon says the execution will be livestreamed. It would be the first US military execution since 1961.

Before any of that was announced publicly, the families were sent an email. It asked whether they wanted to attend in person or watch online.

The people who were there do not agree

Leila Hunt Willingham's brother, J.D. Hunt, was 22 when he was killed on 5 November 2009. She will not be at Fort Hood in December.

"I don't find peace in that," she said. "My peace comes from my faith." She added: "I refuse to let the man who took my brother's life take away my capacity to love, forgive, and hope." She said she hopes Hasan will come to know Jesus before his final breath.

Keara Torkelson was 21 that day, an Army reservist, and was shot twice. "It killed five of my friends from my unit," she said. She does not want to watch the execution, but hopes to be at the base to support other survivors who do.

Other survivors have said publicly that they intend to attend. Seventeen years on, there is no single position among the people with the strongest claim to one — which is worth holding onto, because almost every account of this week's news has run instead on a sentence from a cable interview.

What was decided, and by whom

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said late on Monday that Hegseth had recommended an Army firing squad and that President Donald Trump approved it. "Judgement day for Hasan has finally come," Parnell wrote.

The process is set out in Army Regulation 190-55. Only the president can approve a military execution. The method is designated by the Secretary of the Army on the recommendation of the provost marshal general. The prisoner is informed of the decision in person by the commandant, accompanied by a chaplain and, where available, a defence attorney.

Hasan is 56. He has been held on military death row at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas since his conviction, and was paralysed from the chest down by police gunfire on the day of the attack.

What the Defense Secretary said, and what the Pentagon has not

Hegseth was asked about the method in a Thursday interview with Real America's Voice, conducted by Jack Posobiec. He called the firing squad a "no-brainer" and said Hasan is "gonna get a firing squad of soldiers. As it should be."

On public access: "We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public." Asked whether Hasan had made any final requests or had contacted the administration, Hegseth replied: "Don't care. We'll see him on December 3rd."

Pentagon officials said on Thursday that the execution will be livestreamed and that further details would follow. They have not said where. The Department of Defense posts video on X and YouTube, and declined to comment on Hegseth's own remarks. The White House referred questions to the Pentagon.

What "public" means in practice is still undefined. It is not clear whether troops, officials or members of the public will be present in person. Army regulation provides for at least two media outlets to be selected as witnesses.

Why this has no modern precedent

The numbers here are not rhetorical. They are the reason the announcement is a story in itself.

No US state or federal execution has ever been televised. The last public execution in the United States took place 90 years ago Rainey Bethea, hanged at Owensboro, Kentucky, on 14 August 1936. The last US military execution was Army Pvt John Bennett, hanged on 13 April 1961. The last military firing squad execution was Pvt Eddie Slovik, shot in France in 1945 for desertion.

Firing squads are currently authorised in only five states Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah. South Carolina carried one out last year, the first firing squad execution anywhere in the United States in fifteen years. In April, the Trump administration added the firing squad to the methods accepted for federal executions, alongside gas asphyxiation and electrocution.

A livestreamed military execution by firing squad would therefore be the first of its kind in American history, not a return to an older practice.

What happened in 2009

Hasan, then a major and an Army psychiatrist, walked into a processing centre at Fort Hood where service members were waiting for immunisations and deployment clearance. He shouted "Allahu akbar" and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun. Investigators recovered 146 shell casings inside the building and dozens more outside.

Thirteen people were killed and more than 30 injured. A military jury convicted Hasan of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted murder, and he was sentenced to death in August 2013. He said the attack was intended to stop soldiers deploying to Afghanistan; the military judge barred him from presenting that as a defence.

December is a plan, not a certainty

Legal experts say Hasan retains a route that could push this well past the scheduled date. A habeas corpus petition filed in civilian court could delay the execution substantially.

Eugene R. Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School who specialises in military law, put the timescale bluntly: such a petition "frankly might outlast the current administration."

So the announcement this week is exactly that an announcement. The Pentagon has set a date, named a method and said the public will be able to watch. It has not yet said how, and the courts have not yet had their turn.