Army Sets Dec. 3 Execution Date for Fort Hood Shooter as Trump Weighs Livestream

The Army has set a date and a method for the first execution carried out by the United States military in 65 years, and as of Saturday night President Donald Trump still had not settled the question hanging over it: whether the killing of former Army Maj. Nidal Hasan will be shown live to the public.

Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle signed an order directing the execution on Oct. 6, four days after Trump approved the death sentence following a recommendation from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to an announcement posted by the Army. Hasan, convicted in the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, is scheduled to be shot by firing squad at 1 p.m. Central time on Dec. 3, at the same post where he carried out the attack.

Hegseth told the conservative outlet Real America's Voice on Oct. 7 that "we'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public." Pentagon officials went further the next day, saying the execution would be livestreamed, with additional details to come. But Trump's own position has wobbled since. He has said he "absolutely" approved a livestream, and on other occasions told reporters he had yet to "make a determination about that."

A 65-year gap, and the numbers behind it

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others when he opened fire at a Fort Hood processing center on Nov. 5, 2009. A military jury convicted him in 2013 and sentenced him to death. If the execution proceeds as scheduled, it would be the first death sentence carried out by the U.S. military since 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged, and the first carried out by firing squad in more than 80 years, according to reporting from Roll Call, which also noted it would be the first public execution in the United States in roughly 90 years.

Under Army Regulation 190-55, the secretary of the Army must schedule the execution between 60 and 150 days after a president's approval, which places the Dec. 3 date within that window. The regulation generally bars public executions, but Roll Call reported that the Army's provost marshal general has authority to waive that provision.

Hasan's case does not sit in isolation. In April, the Justice Department issued a policy report, "Restoring and Strengthening the Federal Death Penalty," that reauthorized the firing squad and the use of pentobarbital for federal executions and urged the Bureau of Prisons to also adopt electrocution and lethal gas, methods the Supreme Court has held consistent with the Eighth Amendment. Trump's approval of Hasan's firing-squad execution also came two days after Tennessee's attempted lethal injection of death-row inmate Christa Pike failed on Sept. 30, prompting Gov. Bill Lee to pause the state's remaining executions and order a third-party review.

From a 2013 verdict to a presidential sign-off

Hasan represented himself at his court-martial, called no witnesses and did not dispute the charges. His conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Army Court of Criminal Appeals in 2020, and in 2024 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces unanimously rejected his bid for relief in a 118-page opinion that addressed eleven separate claims, including that his waiver of counsel was not voluntary and that closing the courtroom violated his right to a public trial. The Supreme Court declined to take up the case on March 31, 2025, according to the Court's own docket, exhausting his direct appeals and clearing the way for presidential review.

Under military law, the president alone can approve a death sentence against a service member. The Army's account of its own review process says a case moves from the Judge Advocate General to the Army secretary and then to the Secretary of War, each adding a recommendation, before reaching the president's desk. Trump approved Hasan's sentence on Oct. 2, and Telle, the Army secretary, issued the formal order directing the execution four days later.

A death row debate larger than one case

Hasan is one of four prisoners on the military's death row at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, alongside Ronald Gray, Hasan Akbar and Timothy Hennis. Reporting by Task and Purpose found that the Army had spent recent years preparing a separate plan, called Operation Resolute Justice, to transfer those prisoners to the federal government's execution facility in Terre Haute, Indiana, for lethal injection. The choice to instead carry out Hasan's execution by firing squad at Fort Hood marks a departure from that plan, the outlet reported, and could set the template for how the other three cases eventually proceed.

Legal scholars quoted in coverage of the announcement, including Yale's Eugene Fidell, have said Hasan could still delay his execution for years by filing a habeas corpus petition in federal civilian court, a process separate from the military appeals he has already exhausted. Fordham's Deborah Denno argued a livestream could make the process "much more transparent," while Villanova's Brenner Fissell and UC Berkeley's Elisabeth Semel both questioned whether the administration's rationale was really about transparency, with Semel saying she could not recall a prior government-initiated televised execution.

Bipartisan unease on Capitol Hill

The livestream plan has drawn criticism that crosses party lines, with most of it coming from Democrats but a handful of Republicans joining in. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who has said confirming Hegseth was his biggest regret in the Senate, called the plan "beyond disgusting" and compared it to practices in "oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan," according to Roll Call's account of the reaction. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, wrote that he supports Hasan's death sentence but that "live-streaming executions is what jihadists do. America is better than that."

"It's a gift to anti-American terrorist recruiters," said Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, urging the administration to reconsider what he called an "abhorrent move."

Other Democrats were blunter still. Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a Marine Corps veteran, likened the prospect to "a snuff film," and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington called it "grotesque." Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the Armed Services Committee's ranking Democrat, said in a statement that a livestream is "disturbing and makes a mockery of our legal system." Not every Republican objected: Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee called the proposed public execution what the "terrorist deserves," adding, "We will be watching." Vice President JD Vance told reporters in Ohio he was skeptical the livestream would actually happen and said he personally would not watch it, according to the New Republic's roundup of the response.

What happens next

Trump's final word on the livestream remains pending. Pentagon officials have said they still intend to broadcast the execution and that further logistical details, including the platform, will be released closer to Dec. 3, according to reporting on the Pentagon's confirmation. Hasan's attorney, John Galligan, has said he was not present when his client was notified of the president's approval and has raised concerns about Hasan's access to counsel and his physical condition on death row. A federal habeas petition remains Hasan's most plausible remaining avenue to delay or block the execution, one that legal experts say could stretch well beyond the scheduled date. Unless a court intervenes, the execution is set to proceed at Fort Hood on Dec. 3, with the manner of its broadcast still an open question the White House has yet to answer definitively.