The US military will livestream the planned firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the gunman who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009. The Pentagon confirmed the decision, which would mark an unprecedented broadcast of an execution in the United States.

Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, is scheduled to be executed on December 3 at Fort Hood, where he opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun inside a medical facility. He would become the first person executed by a US military firing squad since 1945.

"It will be livestreamed. Details will follow," a Pentagon official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also confirmed the livestream in a post on X. He has backed the decision to execute Hasan by firing squad. The announcement comes amid renewed debate over capital punishment in the US following a botched lethal injection attempt in Tennessee last week.

Hegseth told the Human Events Daily programme that scheduling the execution at Fort Hood on a Thursday at 1 pm was a "no-brainer". The timing, day and location closely match those of the 2009 shooting.

"We'll make sure that people can watch it, that it's public. Because people need to understand that ... there's serious consequences for these types of things," Hegseth said.

When asked whether Hasan had made any final requests, Hegseth replied, "Don't care. We'll see him on December 3."

Public executions have become extremely rare worldwide. Iran and Taliban-run Afghanistan are among the countries known to conduct them in recent years. Experts said no other country is known to livestream or televise a legal execution.

The last legally sanctioned public execution in the US took place in 1936. Thousands watched the hanging of a young Black man convicted of raping a white woman. Public lynchings, often targeting Black Americans, also remained spectacles well into the 20th century.

Eugene Fidell, a lawyer, author and military law expert who lectures at Yale Law School, said livestreaming Hasan's execution would be highly unusual. Although firing squads have a long history in American military law, he knew of no precedent for broadcasting an execution. Hasan would need to approach a federal court to challenge the public display of his death.

"The Supreme Court has never addressed this question, and it's an interesting question whether the current Supreme Court would put on their originalist hat and say, 'Well, it was OK in 1790, so what the hell?'" Fidell said.

Jonathan Lurie, an author and military justice historian, questioned the purpose of making the execution public. "What's the point of it? Who would want to see that?" he said.

A military jury sentenced Hasan to death in August 2013 after finding him guilty of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder. He was 56 at the time of the report and had been scheduled for deployment to Afghanistan weeks after the shooting. Police shot him during his arrest, leaving him partially paralysed and dependent on a wheelchair.

Under US military law, the president must approve a firing squad execution. President Donald Trump authorised Hasan's execution on Monday following Hegseth's recommendation. The White House declined to comment on whether Trump supported livestreaming it.

Death Penalty Action said Hasan's execution would be the first military execution since 1961. The Death Penalty Information Centre said that execution was carried out by hanging. The last known US military firing squad executions took place in 1945.

At least five US states permit firing squad executions. South Carolina carried out the first such execution in the country in 15 years in 2025. The Trump administration has also expanded federal execution methods to include firing squads, electrocution and gas asphyxiation, partly due to difficulties obtaining lethal injection drugs.

Meanwhile, Tennessee's attempt to execute Christa Pike last week failed. Her lawyers said she awoke "angry and confused" in hospital on Wednesday. They reported that Pike remained seriously ill and shackled to her hospital bed.