Firing squad execution of mass killer Nidal Hasan to be livestreamed, Pentagon says

The firing squad execution of an ex-US army psychiatrist who killed 13 people in Texas will be livestreamed.

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, which is set to take place on 3 December, would be "public".

"We'll make sure that people are able to watch it," Mr Hegseth told conservative TV outlet Real America's Voice News.

Pentagon officials later confirmed it would be livestreamed and more details would follow.

Donald Trump earlier this week approved the method of execution for Hasan, a former army major who killed 13 people in a shooting spree at Fort Hood military base in 2009.

Hasan said the attack was retaliation for US wars in the Middle East and to protect Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

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Hegseth announces a public execution
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Pete Hegseth on making firing squad execution 'public'

The US military has not executed a service member by firing squad since the Second World War, Mr Hegseth said.

The last time it carried out a military execution was in April 1961, when Private John Bennett was hanged for the rape and attempted murder of an Austrian girl.

Death by firing squad was one of several forms of capital punishment recently added to permissible forms of execution by the Trump administration, in addition to electrocution and gas asphyxiation.

When asked if Hasan had made any final requests or reached out to the Trump administration, Mr Hegseth replied: "Don't care. We'll see him on December 3rd."

Four men, including Hasan, are currently on the military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

At least five states authorise firing squads as a method of execution. In 2025, South Carolina carried out the first such execution in the US in 15 years.

The number of federal execution options was expanded, in part, because of the increasing difficulties in obtaining drugs for lethal injections.

Forty-seven people were executed across 11 US states in 2025, the most since 2009. Nineteen of them were in Florida.

America's last public execution was in 1936 when a black man accused of raping a white woman was hanged in front of thousands in Kentucky.

Decision to livestream 'extraordinary'

Sky's US correspondent David Blevins said people will be "very shocked" by the decision to livestream the execution, and that some will "find it almost medieval".

Only Iran and Afghanistan carried out public executions last year, according to Amnesty International.

Blevins said the US government is sending "a very clear message" and described the decision as "extraordinary, given that it comes with America's death penalty front and centre of debate following the botched execution of Christa Pike".

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Christa Pike's first words after surviving lethal injection

Last week, Pike, a Tennessee death row inmate, survived two doses of lethal injection in Nashville.

Lawyers for the 50-year-old said on Thursday that she had taken her first steps with assistance since waking up in hospital, having earlier revealed that she had spoken her first words.

They also said Pike was "angry and confused about everything right now", adding that she had been brain dead as recently as Monday.

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Pike, who was convicted of killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995, would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee for more than 200 years.

At a hearing on Wednesday, a judge granted a motion brought by Pike's legal team that requires the state to preserve relevant evidence from the botched execution.

Tennessee governor Bill Lee previously said an independent review was under way to determine what happened.

Death penalty in the US and globally

Forty-seven people were executed in the US last year - the most since 2009.

There were 23 death sentences handed down in 2025. There's been a steady decline since 1986, when 325 people were sentenced to death.

Opposition to the death penalty has also been increasing: 80% of Americans were in favour in 1995, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. This year, the figure is 52%.

Twenty-three states don't have the death penalty - and 11 have abolished it in the last 20 years.

At least 2,707 executions were carried out globally last year, says Amnesty International.

It says Iran executed at least 2,159 people; Saudi Arabia at least 356; Yemen at least 51.

China is believed to carry out the most executions, according to Amnesty, which says the figure is in the thousands.

North Korea is also believed to carry out a significant number. But due to secrecy in both countries, the exact number is unknown

Only Iran and Afghanistan carried out public executions last year, according to Amnesty.

Saudi Arabia used to be well-known for carrying out beheadings in a public square in Riyadh. However, that appears to have stopped - with executions now happening behind closed doors.

The last public execution in the US was in 1936, when a man accused of rape was hanged in front of thousands in Kentucky.

Earlier this week, Jamaal Howard, a Texas death row inmate convicted of fatally shooting a convenience store clerk in 2000, became the first person to be put to death in the US since Pike's attempted execution.

Howard, 46, was given pentobarbital, the same drug given to Pike, and his lawyers twice filed requests to stop the execution, arguing that the drug posed similar risks.

However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied both requests without elaboration.