The Pentagon says it will livestream the planned military execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people and wounded 32 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.Hasan, 56, has been on military death row since his conviction and sentencing in 2013.His case returned to the public spotlight earlier this week, when the Pentagon announced that President Trump had approved his death by firing squad — a first for the military since World War II.The Pentagon says Hasan's execution will take place on the afternoon of Dec.
3 at Fort Hood, the site of his shooting rampage.On Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the proceedings would be available for public viewing."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 in a video interview with Real America's Voice, a right-wing streaming network.The Pentagon confirmed to NPR in a statement Friday that the execution "will be livestreamed," saying details would follow.But much remains uncertain.
Legal experts have said Hasan could delay his execution by years if he decides to file a habeas corpus appeal in federal court.Michael Radelet, a professor emeritus at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies capital punishment, says outside groups could potentially challenge the livestream plans, too."Hegseth is a rather controversial person," Radelet told NPR.
"If he says, 'Do it this way,' it's not at all clear that it will actually be done that way."If it does come to pass, it would be the first public execution in the U.S.in nearly a century — and the first ever to be livestreamed."Public executions have typically been held in authoritarian countries to instill fear in the population and to show the power and control of the government," Robin Maher, the executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, told NPR.
"We're not aware of any regulation or his...