War Secretary Pete Hegseth says the scheduled execution of former Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan will be conducted publicly when the convicted Fort Hood shooter is put to death later this year.
Hasan is scheduled to be executed by U.S. Army firing squad on Dec. 3 at 1 p.m. Central Time at Fort Hood, Texas.
Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle formally set the date after Hegseth recommended the firing-squad method and President Donald Trump approved it.
The Pentagon first announced the decision on Oct. 5.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said Hegseth recommended, and Trump approved, “death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan.”
Hegseth reacted to the announcement on social media with one word: “Justice.”
Now, Hegseth says members of the public will be able to witness the execution.
Speaking during an interview with Real America’s Voice aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, Hegseth said the administration wants the punishment to be visible because of the seriousness of Hasan’s crimes.
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth said.
Hasan carried out the deadly attack at Fort Hood on Nov. 5, 2009.
At the time, he was an Army major and psychiatrist.
Authorities said Hasan entered a soldier readiness processing center in Killeen, Texas, shouted “Allahu Akbar” and opened fire on military personnel who were preparing for deployment.
Thirteen people were killed.
Twelve of the victims were U.S. service members, while the 13th was a civilian employee.
Another 32 people were wounded.
Hasan was eventually shot by responding civilian police officers and was left paralyzed from the waist down.
Hegseth said Fort Hood was deliberately selected as the site of the execution because it was where Hasan committed the attack.
“Army major betrays his country, radical Islamist kills a bunch of Americans at Fort Hood. Of course we’re doing it at Fort Hood,” Hegseth said.
The administration has also selected a time intended to mirror the timing of the 2009 shooting.
“We’re going to do it on a Thursday,” Hegseth said.
“We’re going to do it at one o’clock, which is when he did it.”
Hegseth added that soldiers armed with rifles will carry out the execution.
“And it’s going to be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad,” he said.
If carried out as scheduled, Hasan’s execution would mark a major moment in U.S. military history, as Trending Politics reported.
It would be the first execution conducted by the U.S. military since 1961.
It would also be the Army’s first execution by firing squad since World War II.
Hasan was convicted by a military court-martial in August 2013.
A panel of officers found him guilty of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.
He was sentenced to death.
Hasan represented himself during the trial and acknowledged that he carried out the shooting.
He described the attack as an effort to protect Islamic extremists overseas from U.S. military action.
Since his conviction, Hasan has remained on military death row at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth.
His case has spent years moving through the appeals process required under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
The Trump administration has now moved toward carrying out the sentence.
Telle’s memorandum formally establishes the Dec. 3 execution date, while Hegseth’s latest comments reveal that officials intend for the event to be publicly viewable.
If the execution proceeds as planned, Hasan will face a military firing squad at the same Army installation where he carried out the attack 17 years earlier.
