The Fort Hood shooter faces a firing squad on Dec. 3, with no livestream

For one week in October, the U.S. government planned to stream an execution. Then the president changed his mind. What hasn’t changed is the date, the place and the method: a firing squad of soldiers at Fort Hood, on Dec. 3.

Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people and wounded 32 at Fort Hood in 2009, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad at the Texas base, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced, PBS NewsHour reported. Pentagon officials said it would be livestreamed. On Oct. 15, President Donald Trump overruled that plan, NBC News reported.

I went through the coverage of both announcements. This is a story about one of the deadliest attacks ever carried out on a U.S. military base, and about how close a government came to turning its punishment into content.

The crime

In 2009, Hasan, then an Army major, walked into a medical building at Fort Hood where soldiers were waiting for immunizations and deployment clearance, PBS reported. He shouted “Allahu akbar” and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun. Investigators recovered 146 shell casings inside the building and dozens more outside.

Trial testimony showed he had spent weeks planning, PBS reported, and soldiers testified that his rapid reloading made it nearly impossible to stop him. Hasan said he acted to stop soldiers from going to Afghanistan and killing Muslims. A military judge barred him from presenting that as a defense. Representing himself, he described himself as a soldier who had “switched sides.” He was sentenced to death in 2013.

Thirteen people were killed in a building where most had come to get ready to serve. Thirty-two others were wounded. Their families have waited 17 years for this sentence to be carried out.

A firing squad, and a camera

Trump approved the execution, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said, according to PBS. Hegseth said the military hasn’t executed a service member by firing squad since World War II. The last military execution of any kind was in 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged, PBS reported.

Hegseth was blunt. “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” he said. Asked whether Hasan had made final requests, he answered: “Don’t care. We’ll see him on December 3rd.”

According to a U.S. official cited by NBC News, the livestream was Hegseth’s idea, and his recommendation of a firing squad at Fort Hood surprised Pentagon and Army officials.

The reversal

The pushback came from both parties. Some critics worried a video would feed Hasan’s desire for martyrdom. Others said a public execution went against American values, NBC News reported. House Speaker Mike Johnson worried the footage could become a recruiting tool for future terrorists and said, “Not everybody is in favor of the idea.” Vice President JD Vance said, “I don’t know that’s going to happen,” and that he would not watch.

On Oct. 15, Trump wrote on Truth Social that streaming “might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan,” but that “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die.” He concluded: “He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed.”

Family members of the victims will be able to attend in person, NBC News reported. A White House official said Trump hadn’t known Hasan was paralyzed, and that this factored into the decision.

Who the livestream was for

My view: the livestream was never about the families. They can be in the room. It was about everyone else, a show of toughness for an audience at home and a message to an audience abroad. That’s exactly what worried Johnson. Footage made to deter can be edited to recruit.

It’s also a reminder of how quickly a punishment becomes a performance when it’s run by people who think in clips. A week of debate about a camera crowded out the 13 names that should be at the center of this story.

What could still change

The date isn’t guaranteed. Military law experts told PBS that Hasan could resist the execution and file a habeas petition in civilian court, which could significantly delay it. Eugene R. Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School, said the process “might outlast the current administration.”

If Dec. 3 holds, the U.S. military will carry out its first execution in 65 years, by a method it hasn’t used since 1945. The victims’ families will watch. The rest of the country, as of now, won’t.

Sources

• PBS NewsHour: Pentagon says firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter will be livestreamed
• NBC News: Trump says government won’t livestream execution of Nidal Hasan
• The Washington Post: Fort Hood shooter’s execution will be live-streamed, Defense Dept. says
• Axios: Trump cancels Hegseth’s plan to livestream execution

Photos

• “Folded Flag with White Flower on Dark Background” by OksaLy, Envato Elements (featured image)