Execution of Fort Hood shooter in US to be broadcast live

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the public will be able to watch the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, a former US Army psychiatrist who, in 2009, killed 13 unarmed American servicemen at the Fort Hood military base in Texas. A US Department of Defense representative confirmed this in an interview with the BBC.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump ordered Hasan's death sentence to be carried out.

"We will make sure that people can see this, that it is accessible to the public," Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said on Thursday. "Because people need to understand that such actions have serious consequences."

In an interview with the conservative television channel Real America's Voice, Hegseth stated that Hasan "will be shot. That's how it should be."

The execution is scheduled for December 3 at Fort Hood, Texas.

This will be the first military execution by firing squad since the end of World War II.

Hasan launched the attack at Fort Hood weeks before he and his colleagues were due to deploy to Afghanistan. He opened fire on servicemen in a crowded medical center where soldiers were waiting for medical check-ups and vaccinations.

In court, Hasan apologized for "all mistakes." During the military tribunal in 2013, Hasan, who professes Islam, stated that he believed he was defending Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

There are no precedents for public executions in modern history, said John Mills, a lawyer who works with people sentenced to death.

"It seems to me this is intended as a grotesque spectacle," he said. "This is an unprecedented decision in the modern era, and it is being made in a legal situation with an uncertain status."

According to military law, the execution of a military death sentence requires the approval of the US President. Further progress in the case also requires appellate review, during which a higher court reviews the decision and confirms its legality.

Hasan's appeals process is not yet complete, Mills said. According to him, Hasan will likely seek review of the conviction and sentence in federal court, which would most likely stay the execution.

Mills said he would be surprised if the execution actually happened.

"Attempting to broadcast a live execution is nothing more than an attempt to garner attention from the Trump administration. It's unlikely to happen, much less bring any semblance of justice," he added.

Some states provide for some form of public observation of executions. In many states, the presence of journalists is mandatory, and the condemned can invite witnesses. In other states, ordinary citizens are also allowed to voluntarily attend executions as witnesses.

However, "there has never been a live broadcast of an execution," notes Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University who studies execution methods in the US.

According to her, when organizing a live broadcast, age restrictions must be taken into account, as well as whether such a broadcast would violate the rules of the online platform on which it would be shown.

It is currently unclear where exactly the live broadcast could be watched.

The last military execution in the US Army took place in 1961.

At that time, an American private was hanged after being found guilty of raping an 11-year-old Austrian girl. The execution was sanctioned by then-President Dwight Eisenhower and took place despite a plea for clemency from the victim's family, which they sent to his successor, John F. Kennedy.

The last firing squad execution in the US Army occurred in January 1945, in the final months of World War II. At that time, a young American serviceman, Eddie Slovik, who had deserted the army, was executed by firing squad.

Although President Trump has never openly supported public executions, he has long supported capital punishment. After returning to the White House, Trump immediately lifted the moratorium on federal executions imposed by his predecessor Joe Biden and signed an executive order aimed at "restoring" the death penalty and "protecting public safety."

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