Pentagon confirms first US military execution in over 60 years will be livestreamed
The Pentagon has confirmed that the December 3 execution of Nidal Hasan, a former US Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009, will be livestreamed, The Guardian reported on October 9.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Hasan would be executed by a military firing squad at Fort Hood at 1 p.m. local time. A Defense Department official subsequently confirmed to The Guardian that the execution would be broadcast live.
"We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public, because people need to understand there's serious consequences for these types of things," Hegseth said in an interview with Real America's Voice.
Hasan killed 13 people and wounded dozens more at the military base on November 5, 2009. A military jury sentenced him to death in 2013. After he exhausted his appeals last year, President Donald Trump approved the execution this week.
The execution would be the first carried out by the US military since 1961. The last known military execution by firing squad took place in 1945.
Hegseth also claimed that former President Barack Obama had described the 2009 shooting as "workplace violence." The Guardian noted that while the Pentagon initially used that classification, there is no record of Obama himself using the phrase.