US government plans to livestream first public execution in 90 years

The United States plans to livestream the execution of convicted Fort Hood gunman Nidal Malik Hasan, opening a military execution to public viewing for the first time in decades.

Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, is scheduled to face a firing squad at Fort Hood in Texas on December 3, 2026. He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others at the military base in 2009.

The Pentagon confirmed the broadcast plan on October 8, 2026, but said further details would follow, Reuters reported. The execution has not yet taken place. 

If carried out as announced, it would mark a return to public executions after nearly 90 years. 

The last such events were public hangings in Kentucky in 1936 and Missouri in 1937.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said allowing people to watch would demonstrate the consequences of Hasan’s crimes.

“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it. That it’s public,” he said in an interview with conservative commentator Jack Posobiec. 

President Donald Trump approved Hasan’s execution by firing squad following Hegseth’s recommendation. The Army has set the execution for 1pm at the same base where Hasan carried out the attack.

Hasan opened fire at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Processing Centre on November 5, 2009. A military jury convicted him in August 2013 and sentenced him to death. He has since been held on military death row at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. 

The planned execution would be the US military’s first since 1961 and its first by firing squad since 1945. Those milestones are separate from the proposed livestream, which would make the execution available to an unrestricted public audience. 

The announcement has raised questions about the legal basis for broadcasting an execution. Military law expert Eugene Fidell told Reuters that Hasan would need to seek intervention in federal court to challenge the public display. 

ABC News reported that the firing squad decision also forced the Army to change preparations initially built around lethal injection. The service no longer has a modern procedure for conducting a firing squad execution.

The December date could still change. Hasan can seek a review in the civilian federal courts, a process that could delay the execution.