Nidal Hasan, who shot dead 13 unarmed US soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009 /HANDOUT
The public will be able to watch the execution of a former US Army major by firing squad, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said.
A Defense Department official told the BBC the execution of Nidal Hasan, who shot dead 13 unarmed US soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, would be livestreamed.
It is believed it would be the first public execution in the US in almost a century. The decision to livestream it is "unprecedented in the modern era" and "on uncertain legal terrain," said John Mills, a lawyer who works with inmates sentenced to death.
"We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public," Hegseth said.
"People need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things."
The Pentagon announced earlier this week it would execute Hasan in the first military execution in more than 60 years.
Hegseth said in an interview with conservative TV outlet Real America's Voice that Hasan is "gonna get a firing squad of soldiers. As it should be".
Asked if Hasan had made any final requests or reached out to President Donald Trump, Hegseth said: "Don't care. We'll see him on December 3rd."
A Pentagon spokesperson said on Monday that Trump had approved the defence secretary's recommendation. The BBC has asked White House whether Trump supports a livestreamed public execution.
While there were more than 2,700 executions across 17 countries last year, only two countries carried them out publicly.
Eleven public executions were known to have been carried out in Iran in 2025, and another six in Afghanistan, according to Amnesty International.
The execution is scheduled to take place at Fort Hood in Texas on 3 December, the secretary of the US Army said on Tuesday. It will be the first military execution by firing squad since the end of World War Two.
Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist from Virginia, has admitted fatally shooting 13 unarmed soldiers in a crowded medical building at Fort Hood in 2009.
At court he apologised for "any mistakes". He said during his court martial in 2013 that he believed he was protecting Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
