Who is Nidal Malik Hasan? Pentagon says firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooters will be televised live | Today’s news

The Pentagon said Thursday that it will broadcast live the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan by firing squad. It would be the first military execution in more than 65 years. The military announced this week that the execution will take place at Fort Hood on Dec. 3.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told conservative TV channel Real America’s Voice on Wednesday, “We’re going to make sure that people can watch it so that it’s public,” the Associated Press reported.

Pentagon officials clarified Thursday that the execution would be broadcast live and that more details would follow.

Hegseth’s revelations about the public nature of an execution — let alone one as violent as a firing squad — raised more questions about how the death penalty is carried out in the US, especially after Christy Pike’s botched lethal injection in Tennessee.

Who is Nidal Malik Hasan?

Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting at a military base in 2009.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who held the rank of major, walked into the medical building on November 5, 2009, where soldiers were waiting in long lines for vaccinations and medical clearance to deploy.

He shouted “Allahu akbar” – Arabic for “God is great!” — and opened fire with a laser pistol. He also shot in the back of the soldiers fleeing towards the parking lot.

According to the Associated Press, Hasan said it was an effort to prevent them from going to Afghanistan and killing his fellow Muslims.

A military judge barred him from presenting it as a defense during his 2013 trial.

Hasan was left paralyzed from the waist down after law enforcement officers shot him in the back and now uses a wheelchair.

It is unclear if Hasan will try to appeal

Hasan could seek a long stay of execution, although given his behavior in court he may not want to. Experts told the AP that Hasan could choose to resist the execution and file a habeas petition — a legal request to review the legality of the detention — in a civilian court, which could significantly delay the execution.

Hegseth was asked Wednesday if Hasan had made any final demands or reached out to the Trump administration. The Pentagon chief replied: “It doesn’t matter. I’ll see you on December 3rd.”

After firing his lawyers and representing himself, Hasan opened his part of the trial by telling jurors he was the shooter. He said nothing else for the next three weeks, which convinced his court-appointed emergency lawyers that Hasan’s only goal was to get the death sentence.

The military called nearly 90 witnesses, but Hasan rested his case without calling a single person to testify in his defense and made no closing arguments. Yet documents were leaked to reporters during the trial that revealed he had told military mental health workers that he might “still be a martyr” if executed.

Attorney John Galligan, a former military judge who has represented Hasan in several civil cases since his criminal trial, spoke with Hasan on Wednesday but is not permitted to provide many details about that conversation.

He is not representing Hasan in his criminal case, but said he is concerned about his physical health under the schedule laid out by officials and that Hasan has not yet had access to a lawyer.

Galligan said that according to Hasan, the facility commander brought a chaplain, but no attorney from the Trial Defense Service or his civil defense, when he was told that Trump had signed off on his execution. Galligan called it a violation of Army regulations.

An Army spokeswoman said Thursday that several attempts were made to contact Trial Defense Service attorneys, saying they made all reasonable efforts and followed policy.

“Civil counsel was not reasonably available to be physically present for the announcement on the 5th,” the spokeswoman said, adding that the counsel was located in Virginia but did not provide a name.

The spokeswoman also said Hasan was not prevented from contacting and communicating with his attorney.

Hegseth said the military has not executed a service member by firing squad since World War II. The last military execution took place on April 13, 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was executed by hanging.

In its report on executions in 2025, Amnesty International said it was aware of at least 17 public executions – 11 in Iran and 6 in Afghanistan.

Trump has spoken out against public executions in Iran

Trump, who approved Hasan’s execution, has previously criticized public executions in Iran and at times raised the possibility of the Iranian government killing protesters as a possible justification for military action, which preceded his final choice to attack Iran on February 28.

“We’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping,” Trump told reporters on Jan. 14. “It’s stalling and there’s no plan for executions.”

In his State of the Union address just days before the Iran war began, Trump reiterated: “We stopped them from hanging a lot with the threat of serious violence.

Experts have mixed reactions to the plan

Geoffrey Corn, a Texas Tech law professor who served on the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, told CBS News that the plan to live-stream the execution “raises significant moral questions beyond those related to the death penalty in general.”

Meanwhile, Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert and law professor at Fordham University, said live streaming of the execution could make the process “much more transparent” and inform the public about all that the death penalty entails.

Those are benefits she said would be useful at a time when Pike’s botched execution has raised new questions about the way defendants are put to death for their crimes.

“I think it could be a good idea because it would be transparent and the public would be fully aware that this is happening,” she said.

As many states struggle to administer lethal injections because of difficulties accessing drugs or finding doctors willing to participate in executions, firing squads are beginning to be seen as a less inhumane alternative, said Brenner Fissell, a Villanova law professor and vice president of the National Institute of Military Justice.

“Firing squads can be a faster, cleaner and more accurate way to execute prisoners,” he said. “I don’t think that’s what’s driving it. There’s a perceived masculinity and militarism in firing squads that’s part of the aura that Hegseth is trying to emphasize – the ‘culture of death’.”

Elisabeth Semel, co-director of the death penalty clinic at UC Berkeley Law, said Hegseth’s announcement raises a number of legal and public questions, including concerns about the dignity of a defendant who will be eligible for execution and what the Trump administration has in mind when it opts for the unusual spectacle.

Although the idea of ​​televising an execution has been debated for years, “I don’t remember a situation where it was initiated by the government. I think that also raises serious questions about what the government’s motivation is,” she said.

“This is a president who’s all about spectacle, and that’s, I think, exactly the message he’s trying to convey,” Semel said, adding that she’s skeptical the administration has thought through the legal and social issues the decision presents.

(With input from the Associated Press)