Public will be able to watch Fort Hood shooter's execution, Hegseth says

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said that the execution of former Army soldier Nidal Malik Hasan, who carried out a mass shooting at Fort Hood in 2009, would be available for the public to see. In comments to Real America’s Voice on Thursday, Oct. 8, Hegseth said that Hasan would be getting a “firing sq

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Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said that the execution of former Army soldier Nidal Malik Hasan, who carried out a mass shooting at Fort Hood in 2009, would be available for the public to see.

In comments to Real America’s Voice on Thursday, Oct. 8, Hegseth said that Hasan would be getting a “firing squad of soldiers.”

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

Pentagon officials said the execution would be livestreamed, according to the Associated Press and CBS News. Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle previously announced that Hasan's execution would take place at Fort Hood on Dec. 3.

Hasan was a U.S. Army

major who turned his gun on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas on Nov. 5, 2009, killing 13 people and injuring 31 others. He was sentenced to death in 2013 following a court-martial.

In this undated handout photo from the website of the U.S. Government Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences downloaded on November 6, 2009, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army doctor named as a suspect in the shooting death of 13 people and the wounding of 31 others at Fort Hood, Texas November 5, is pictured.

President Donald Trump approved the firing squad execution for Hasan at the recommendation of Hegseth, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced in a post on X on Oct. 5.

"Judgment Day has finally come," Parnell wrote.

The U.S. military hasn't carried out an execution since 1961, according to data kept by the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. That year, the U.S. hanged Army Pvt. John Bennett at a Kansas prison for the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl.

The last time the United States executed a military member via firing squad was on Jan. 31, 1945, when Pvt. Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion, according to The Air Force Times.

Death Penalty Action, a nonprofit that supports ending capital punishment, said in a statement shared with USA TODAY that Nadal's execution is "just another Donald Trump distraction from his poll numbers."

USA TODAY’s Amanda Lee Myers contributed to this report.

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@usatodayco.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Public will be able to watch Fort Hood shooter's execution, Hegseth says