A 2009 military base massacre, 13 deaths and a live-streamed execution: The Nidal Hasan case explained

An impending death sentence in the US is set to mark the beginning of a new episode of capital punishment in American military history. It is the case of the US Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan, who was sentenced for the murder of 13 people in the Fort Hood shooting incident, and he is due to be executed by firing squad on December 3, 2026. This has triggered a recall of the case of Hasan, the court-martial and the online live streaming of the execution.

Pete Hegseth, the Defense Secretary, stated that the act should be streamed live, noting that through the streaming, the public would see the repercussions of committing such acts. This was later confirmed by a Pentagon spokesperson in news stories released by Reuters and CBS News.

This execution, if done as planned, will be the first in the US military since 1961 and the first military execution by firing squad since the Second World War. This creates doubts concerning the need for public visibility in an act of punishment that the US has been conducting in private for decades.

What happened at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009?

The story starts at the Soldier Readiness Processing Centre at Fort Hood, which is an important base for the US Army located in central Texas. The soldiers were getting ready for deployment in the centre when Hasan started shooting around 1:30 pm.

At the time of the shooting, Hasan was an Army major and psychiatrist. He had killed thirteen people and wounded thirty-two people. Of these thirteen, twelve belonged to the armed forces. This shooting turned out to be one of the most lethal shooting incidents in the history of any US military base.

There were witness accounts of Hasan screaming “Allahu Akbar” just before he started shooting. The responding police managed to shoot him, leaving him paralysed below the waist.

The whole scenario led to the questioning of security measures and how the military handled warnings before the shootings. Investigations into his opposition to the US military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as his internet exchanges with radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a man who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen by the US, were conducted.

The whole incident turned out to be a huge issue of national security since the shooter was not some outsider who entered a military establishment. He was an officer within the ranks of the Army.

How Hasan was convicted and sentenced to death

However, the proceedings against Hasan were held under the military court process instead of being conducted under the civil criminal justice process. In August 2013, a military jury convicted him on charges of committing 13 murders and 32 attempts at premeditated murder.

The jury recommended unanimously that Hasan be sentenced to death five days later. Hasan was discharged from military service with forfeiture of his military pay and allowances.

During the court process, Hasan defended himself. He did not deny his involvement in the shootings and also did not put any witness or himself up to defend against the charges. Defense lawyers appointed for him raised fears that Hasan was trying to get a death penalty.

The sentence is not one that would immediately warrant the execution. Death penalty cases in the military have to undergo many steps before the execution can be carried out. According to the Army, the US Supreme Court refused to review the case of Hasan in March 2025.

In 2026, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed off on the death sentence on October 2, 2026. The execution was scheduled to be carried out on December 3 of the same year. The execution will take place at Fort Hood, the same place where the murders were committed.

Why the firing squad and livestream are attracting attention

Hegseth announced the public-facing approach during an interview with the conservative outlet Real America's Voice on October 8. He said Hasan would face a firing squad made up of soldiers and argued that people should understand the consequences of crimes of this nature.

A Pentagon official later confirmed that the execution would be livestreamed, although the department has yet to provide further details about the broadcast.

Execution by shooting is not a common practice in the modern-day American military system.

In fact, the last execution of a US military shooting squad happened in November 1945 when an Army private named Eddie Slovik was executed for the offence of desertion in the Second World War. The most recent military execution in the US happened in 1961 when an Army private named John Bennett was hanged.

Livestreaming the execution makes matters more complicated.

Public execution has been a common practice in America, but it has slowly been moved to behind prison walls. The last widely accepted public execution in the US happened in 1936 in Owensboro, Kentucky, where Rainey Bethea was publicly hanged in front of an estimated crowd of 20,000 people.

Hasan's scheduled execution would therefore stand apart from the modern practice of carrying out capital punishment away from public view. The precise arrangements for viewing it, however, remain unclear.

What the case means for the US death penalty debate

Hasan’s case puts the issues of military law, national security and morality of the death penalty all on the same table. Those in favour of making it a broadcast will see it as an act of accountability. Those who are against it might be wondering whether there is any benefit to the public in displaying an execution.

The difference between making an announcement and making the execution available to the public is also critical. Although Hegseth has said people should be able to watch, the Pentagon has not yet outlined how the livestream will operate or who will be permitted to access it.

Public executions remain rare in the contemporary world.

While Amnesty International has noted that such executions are still carried out in certain countries like Iran and Afghanistan, the proposed use of the US military broadcast represents a significant departure from US practices in the past.

At the same time, the execution method is currently one of the many issues related to the death penalty in the United States that continue to attract attention. Firing squad executions are allowed in five US states: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah.

The family members of the 13 victims of the Fort Hood shooting incident have been waiting for the legal procedure to be completed for almost 15 years.

Hasan's December execution date represents the next scheduled step in that process. Whether the livestream proceeds as announced, and how the military handles public access, will determine whether the case becomes a turning point in the modern history of US military executions.