The United States will broadcast an execution live for the first time on December 3, with the execution of former US Army Major Nidal Hassan, convicted of killing 13 people at “Fort Hood” military base in Texas in 2009.
Reuters reports this.
On October 8, the US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed the plans in an interview with the conservative TV channel Real Americaʼs Voice aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. He said a firing squad of military personnel would carry out the sentence on December 3 at 1:00 PM at “Fort Hood”.
The secretary said Americans need to see the execution to understand the consequences of such crimes. Hegseth also wrote about the broadcast on social media X. A Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also confirmed to Reuters that the execution would be broadcast live.
According to Reuters, such a broadcast would be unprecedented for the United States. American media outlets have previously tried to get permission to broadcast executions, but courts have denied them. Experts interviewed by the agency do not know of any country that would broadcast executions by court verdicts.
Hassanʼs execution will be the first execution of a US service member since 1961. The last time the US military carried out a death sentence was in 1945. Typically, military personnel sentenced to death are executed by lethal injection in US disciplinary barracks.
What is Nidal Hassan accused of?
Nidal Hassan is a Palestinian Muslim born in the United States. On November 5, 2009, he opened fire on a medical facility on a military base that was serving as a staging area for soldiers deployed to combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He killed 13 people and injured 32. During the attack, a police officer shot Hassan, leaving him partially paralyzed.
In 2013, a military tribunal sentenced him to death. Hassan represented himself in court, calling no witnesses or attempting to deny the charges. Before the attack, Hassan had spoken out against the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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