The Pentagon announced that the upcoming execution of Nidal Hasan, convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, will be broadcast live online.
Historical Precedents and Execution Methods
The scheduled execution, set for December 3 at Fort Hood in Texas, will utilize a firing squad.
Military executions remain rare under U.S. law, and a military death sentence cannot be carried out unless confirmed by the president. The last service member put to death by the military justice system was Army Private John Bennett, who was hanged in 1961 after being convicted of raping an 11-year-old Austrian girl when he was 18 and attempted murder. Currently, four men remain on the military death row in the military death house. Furthermore, Trump is a major proponent of the death penalty who restored federal executions during his first term, during which the federal government executed 13 people between 2020 and 2021, making him the president with the highest number of executions carried out in more than 130 years.
| Event / Detail | Historical Record | Current Status |
|---|---|---|
| Last U.S. Military Execution | 1961 (John Bennett, hanging) | Scheduled: December 3 |
| Last Military Firing Squad | 1945 (Eddie Slovik) | Ordered for Nidal Hasan |
| Location of Attack & Execution | Fort Hood, Texas | Fort Hood, Texas |
| Federal Executions (Trump Admin) | 13 between 2020 and 2021 | Renewed push for capital punishment |
Legal Hurdles and International Condemnation
Legal experts emphasize that the path to the execution chamber faces significant hurdles. Hasan retains the right to challenge his detention and seek a civil court review of the legality of his imprisonment, which experts on military law note could significantly delay the execution. Eugene Fidell, a military law expert who lectures at the Yale University Law School, noted that the case could drag on longer than the term of the current administration, adding, And who knows if the next administration will be just as keen on executions.
How long the entire process can take is illustrated by the case of serial killer specialist Ronald Gray, who was convicted of four murders and eight rapes and whose execution was approved by President George W. Bush before being halted by a federal judge in 2008, with the matter remaining stalled ever since. Hasan might even be able to request a stay of execution, though given his behavior at trial he may not even care to do so.
The announcement of a live broadcast has drawn sharp international and domestic criticism. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy similarly criticized the plan, describing the idea as disgusting
and comparing it to executions carried out by the Islamic State.
Legal counsel John Mills also pointed out that ongoing appellate reviews continue and that further judicial review could postpone the execution, characterizing the live-stream proposal as merely an effort by the Trump administration to grab attention
.
The 2009 Fort Hood Shooting
The case stems from the events of November 5, 2009, when Hasan, a U.S.-born Muslim who was then a 39-year-old and former army major and army psychiatrist, entered a medical processing building at Fort Hood where soldiers were standing in lines for medical evaluations and vaccinations prior to overseas deployments.
According to Novinky, Hasan shouted Allahu akbar
in Arabic and opened fire with a laser-sighted pistol, shooting even into the backs of fleeing soldiers, wounding 32 additional people alongside the 13 unarmed American soldiers he killed. He was left paralyzed on his lower half and confined to a wheelchair after being shot during a shootout with responding law enforcement officers.
During his 2013 military trial, Hasan confessed to the shootings and stated he acted as a soldier who switched sides
as retaliation for the deployment of American troops to Afghanistan, wanting to prevent further deployments to a country where they would kill his coreligionists, though the military judge barred him from using this explanation as a defense. He elected to represent himself without defense counsel, telling the jury he was the shooter and then saying almost nothing for the following three weeks, which convinced his court-appointed standby counsel that his sole objective was to achieve a death sentence.
