- Nidal Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 shooting spree, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad Dec. 3 at Fort Hood.
What they say: Hegseth told Real America’s Voice on Thursday that Hasan “is going to be put to death by firing squad. As he should.”
- “We’ll make sure people can watch it. Let it be public. Because people need to understand that there are serious consequences to these kinds of things.”
The last one: The Pentagon says the execution will be broadcast live, AP reports, but has not said where specifically the broadcast will be hosted.
- The Pentagon currently posts speeches and videos on X and YouTube.
State of play: The Defense Ministry declined to comment on Hegseth’s remarks, leaving questions about how the public might witness the execution.
- The military has not indicated how it plans to carry out the execution, AP reports.
- It is unclear whether Hegseth’s remarks mean the execution will be open to public spectators, streamed or televised, or made available to certain people.
Zoom out: It would also be the first American military execution since 1961.
- The last American military execution by firing squad was in 1945, when Pvt. Eddie Slovik was shot and killed for desertion in France, according to NPR.
Death by firing squad are rare in the United States
- Only Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah allow this method, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
- Last year, South Carolina carried out the state’s first execution by firing squad – the first in the United States in 15 years.
- The last public execution in the United States took place in 1936, when Rainey Bethea, a black man convicted of raping a white woman, was hanged in Kentucky.
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