Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan’s execution set for Dec. 3: What we know about the live stream | Today’s news
US President Donald Trump said he was still deciding whether to allow a live broadcast of the planned execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, while Vice President JD Vance expressed doubt whether the broadcast would go ahead and said he would not watch it if it did.
Hasan, a former U.S. Army psychiatrist, was sentenced to death in 2013 for killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a 2009 shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas. His execution is scheduled for Dec. 3 and is expected to be carried out by firing squad.
The Pentagon indicated the execution would be broadcast live after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the public would be able to watch it. But Trump’s latest remarks have left the proposed broadcast uncertain, despite his support for the death penalty in Hasan’s case.
“We’re making a decision about it, but he’s going to be killed. He’s going to be killed, by firing squad,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday, Oct. 9.
Trump also mentioned the number of people killed and injured in the attack and expressed support for Hasan’s execution.
JD Vance says he won’t watch the live broadcast of the execution
Vance, who converted to Catholicism, questioned whether the Pentagon would go ahead with the live broadcast, despite earlier confirmation of the plan.
“I don’t know that it’s actually going to happen,” Vance told reporters Friday when asked about the proposed broadcast.
He said Hasan carried out what he considered “the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11,” adding that controversy over the method of execution should not overshadow the crimes.
“So whatever the controversy is about the method of execution, I hope people don’t forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people,” Vance said.
“Now, that means, I mean, look, if it ends up being live, I’m not going to watch it,” he added.
The Pentagon says the execution will be made public
The Pentagon confirmed the live-streaming plan Thursday after Hegseth said the military would make sure people could watch the execution.
“We’re going to make sure people can watch it, make it public,” Hegseth said.
In a video shared on the Pentagon’s official accounts on X, he argued that the execution would highlight the consequences of such attacks.
“People need to understand that … these types of things have serious consequences,” Hegseth said.
If carried out as planned, Hasan’s execution would be the first execution by a US military firing squad since 1945, according to information cited in reports on the case. The last American military execution took place in 1961, when John Bennett was hanged for rape and attempted murder.
The proposed live broadcast has drawn opposition from both parties, including some Republicans, as well as religious leaders and international observers.
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Pope Leo renews opposition to the death penalty
The controversy unfolded amid a renewed debate over the death penalty in the United States following a botched lethal injection involving a woman in Tennessee last week.
Pope Leo XIV on Saturday he also renewed his opposition to the death penalty, saying it violates human dignity and deprives people of the possibility of redemption.
“The common good can be protected and the demands of justice fulfilled without resorting to the death penalty,” Leo said in a social media post to mark the World Day Against the Death Penalty.
“The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of a person,” he added. The Pope did not directly mention the Pentagon’s live broadcast plan.
The Catholic Church has long opposed the death penalty, and Vance’s comments were placed in the context of a broader debate about the morality of the death penalty and the public broadcasting of executions.
What happened in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting?
Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting at Fort Hood, a US military installation in Texas, in November 2009. Twelve of those killed and 30 wounded were members of the military.
A civilian police officer who responded to the attack shot and killed Hasan, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
Hasan, a former army psychiatrist, represented himself during the trial, calling no witnesses or testifying. He made no attempt to deny the charges and was sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013.
During the proceedings, the court heard that Hasan opposed the US military’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and communicated online with radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, an alleged al-Qaeda operative and US citizen who was later killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.
Hasan’s execution is scheduled for December 3. However, while Trump has supported carrying out the death sentence by firing squad, it remains uncertain whether the execution will be broadcast live, which the president said is still being decided.
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