Washington DC [US], October 9 : US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday (local time) said the public would be able to watch the execution of former US Army Major Nidal Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, saying he would be executed by a firing squad of soldiers at the military installation.
Speaking to Real America's Voice, Hegseth described the decision as a “no-brainer” and said the execution would take place at Fort Hood on December 3, a Thursday, at 1 pm, the time when Hasan carried out the attack.
“No-brainer. Execution by firing squad. Army major betrays his country, radical Islamist kills a bunch of Americans at Fort Hood. Of course we're going to do it at Fort Hood. We're going to do it on a Thursday. We're going to do it at 1:00, which is when he did it. And it's going to be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad,” Hegseth said.
He said the execution would be made public so people could understand the consequences of such attacks.
“We haven't done this since WWII…He’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be. And we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public because people need to understand that what this is, there's serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth said.
According to Axios, the US has not held a public execution in 90 years, and Hegseth’s remarks raise questions about how the military would allow people to watch.
Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 shooting, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3 at Fort Hood, Axios reported.
Axios reported that the Pentagon says the execution will be livestreamed, but did not name where the stream will be hosted. The Pentagon currently posts speeches and videos on X and YouTube, Axios noted.
The Department of Defence declined to comment on Hegseth’s remarks, leaving questions about how the public could watch the execution, according to Axios. It is unclear if Hegseth’s remarks mean the execution will be open to public spectators, broadcast on streaming or TV, or made available to select individuals, Axios said.
It would also be the first US military execution since 1961, Axios reported. The last US military execution by firing squad was in 1945, when Pvt Eddie Slovik was shot for desertion in France, according to NPR, as cited by Axios.
Deaths by firing squad are rare in the US. Only Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah authorise the method, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre, Axios said. Last year, South Carolina carried out the state’s first firing squad execution, the first in the US in 15 years.
The last public execution in the US was in 1936, when Rainey Bethea, a Black man convicted of raping a white woman, was hanged in Kentucky, Axios reported.
The development follows the Pentagon's announcement earlier this week that US President Donald Trump had authorised Hasan's execution by firing squad. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a post on X that Hegseth had recommended the punishment and Trump had approved it.
“US War Secretary Pete Hegseth has recommended, and President Donald J Trump has approved, death by US Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan,” Parnell said.
“The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Judgement day for Hasan has finally come,” he added.
Hasan, a US Army major, was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others in the November 5, 2009, shooting at Fort Hood. A military jury sentenced him to death in 2013.
The attack took place inside a medical building at the sprawling military base in Texas, which was a major staging area for US troops preparing for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Twelve of those killed were soldiers, while the thirteenth was a civilian. More than 30 people were wounded.
Civilian police officers responding to the shooting shot Hasan, leaving him partially paralysed.
During his court-martial, Hasan represented himself, did not call witnesses or testify, and did not contest the formal charges. His court-appointed defence counsel had previously expressed concern that he was seeking a death sentence.
Prosecutors argued that the attack was inspired by Al-Qaeda. Evidence presented during the trial showed that Hasan opposed US military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and had exchanged online communications with Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical cleric linked to Al-Qaeda who was later killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.
Although mass shootings occur frequently in the United States, attacks at military installations are less common.
In 2025, a soldier opened fire at a US military base in Georgia, injuring five fellow service members before being subdued and arrested.
In 2019, a US Navy sailor killed two people and wounded another at a military facility in Hawaii. That same year, a Saudi military student killed three people at a US facility in Florida.
In 2015, a US citizen born in Kuwait attacked two military facilities in Tennessee, killing four Marines and a sailor. The FBI later determined that the attack had been inspired by a “foreign terrorist group”.
In 2013, a gunman killed 12 people and wounded eight others at the Washington Navy Yard in the US capital before police shot and killed him.