The US will livestream the army’s upcoming firing squad execution of a gunman who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood military base in 2009, the Pentagon said, in what would be an unprecedented broadcast of a US execution.
asserted
what → livestream → execution
Nidal Hasan, a former army psychiatrist, is set to become the first person to be executed by firing squad by the US military since 1945.
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Hasan → set → 1945
The execution is scheduled for December 3 at the same sprawling Texas base where Hasan opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun in a medical facility.
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Hasan → schedule → facility
It comes amid heightened debate in the US over the death penalty following the botched lethal injection of a Tennessee woman last week.
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It → come → woman
“It will be livestreamed.
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It → livestreame → ?
Details will follow,” a Pentagon official told Reuters, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
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official → follow → anonymity
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who championed the push to execute Hasan by firing squad, confirmed plans to livestream the execution in an X post.
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who → champion → post
Media have sought to televise US executions in the past but have been blocked by the courts.
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Media → seek → courts
No other country is known to televise or livestream a legal execution, experts said.
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experts → know → execution
Public executions have become exceedingly rare worldwide.
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executions → become → ?
Among countries known to conduct them in recent years are Iran and Taliban-run Afghanistan.
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Iran → know → years
Extrajudicial lynchings in the United States, often by white mobs targeting Black Americans, were public spectacles well into the 20th century.
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lynchings → target → century
The last legally sanctioned public execution in the United States was conducted in 1936, death penalty experts said.
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experts → sanction → 1936
Thousands watched that 1936 hanging of a young Black man who had been convicted of raping a white woman.
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who → watch → woman
Hegseth told the Human Events Daily program that deciding to execute Hasan by firing squad at Fort Hood on a Thursday at 1:00pm the approximate time, day of the week and location of the 2009 shooting was a “no-brainer.”
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deciding → tell → shooting
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public.
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it → make → it
Because people need to understand that… there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth said.
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Hegseth → need → things
Asked if Hasan had made any final requests, Hegseth said: “Don’t care.
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Hegseth → ask → requests
We’ll see him on December 3.”
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We → see → December
President must approve firing squad execution
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President → approve → execution
A military jury sentenced Hasan to death in August 2013, after finding him guilty of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder.
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him → sentence → murder
The shooting came weeks before Hasan, now 56, was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan.
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Hasan → come → Afghanistan
He was left partially paralysed and confined to a wheelchair from being shot by police during his arrest.
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He → leave → arrest
Under US military law, a US president must approve an execution by firing squad.
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president → approve → squad
President Donald Trump did so on Hegseth’s recommendation, the Pentagon said on Monday.
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Pentagon → do → Monday
The White House declined to say whether Trump supported the livestreaming, referring questions to the Pentagon.
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Trump → decline → Pentagon
The group Death Penalty Action, which opposes capital punishment, said Hasan’s execution would be the first military execution since 1961.
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execution → oppose → 1961
According to the Death Penalty Information Centre, the 1961 execution was carried out by hanging.
uncertain
execution → accord → hanging
The last known executions by US military firing squads were in 1945, the centre reported.
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centre → know → 1945
“It would be extremely, extremely strange” to livestream the event, said Eugene Fidell, a lawyer, author and military law expert who lectures at Yale Law School.
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who → livestream → School
While firing squads have a long history in American military law, as far as he knew it would be unprecedented to livestream or televise an execution
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it → have → execution
, Fidell said, adding that Hasan would need to sue in federal court if he wanted to block a public display of his death.
“The Supreme Court has never addressed this question, and it’s an interesting question whether the current Supreme Court would put on their originalist hat and say, ‘Well, it was OK in 1790, so what the hell?’” Fidell said.
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Fidell → say → 1790
Jonathan Lurie, an author and historian of military justice, said there are no compelling reasons to make the execution public.
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execution → say → justice
“What’s the point of it?
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point → ’ → it
Who would want to see that?” said Lurie.
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Lurie → want → that
At least five states have firing squads on the books, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
uncertain
states → have → Center
In 2025, South Carolina carried out the first such execution in the United States in 15 years.
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Carolina → carry → years
Death by firing squad is one of several forms of capital punishment the Trump administration recently added to permissible forms of execution for the gravest of federal crimes, along with electrocution and gas asphyxiation.
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administration → add → electrocution
The number of federal execution options was expanded in part because of increasing difficulties in obtaining drugs for lethal injections, which have also sometimes proved challenging to carry out.
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which → expand → injections
Plans by the state of Tennessee to execute a woman for the first time in more than 200 years went awry last week when prison personnel botched attempts to administer a lethal injection, leaving the death-row inmate, Christa Pike, alive but hospitalised.
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personnel → execute → inmate
…and 2 more, not listed.
The Aporia
