US Defense Secretary Announces Live-Streamed Military Execution; Survivors and Bipartisan Senators Voice Doubts

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently announced that Nidal Hasan, the perpetrator of the 2009 Fort Hood base shooting, will be executed by firing squad, and agreed to allow the public to watch the execution via live stream. According to a BBC report, this will be the first military execution carried out in the US in over 60 years, and is believed to be the first public execution in the US in nearly a century. However, from surviving victims to bipartisan senators, voices questioning the "public live stream" continue to gather.

On November 5, 2009, Hasan, then a US Army psychiatrist, opened fire on 13 unarmed US soldiers inside a medical building at Fort Hood, Texas, killing them. Personnel inside the building were prohibited by regulation from carrying weapons at the time. Alonzo Lunsford, a gunshot survivor of the attack and former Army sergeant, told the BBC that he himself will be present at the execution, and plans to lock eyes with Hasan as the guns are pointed at him. "I'll stare into his eyes, and he'll stare into mine, and I want him to know: 'Man, you failed, I'm still here,'" Lunsford said.

Regarding the method of execution itself, Lunsford clearly expressed his support for the firing squad, believing lethal injection or the gas chamber would be "too merciful" for him. But when asked about the live broadcast footage, Lunsford paused: "Showing the entire process uncensored to the general public, personally, I disagree, but this isn't about my personal beliefs." He warned that the live broadcast could send the wrong "effect" and "message," especially to young people.

Hegseth, for his part, insisted that letting the public see the consequences of such crimes is "of great significance." However, according to the BBC citing legal experts, there are multiple legal obstacles surrounding the public live stream, and the execution may not be carried out at all — this uncertainty has yet to receive a response from the Pentagon.

The camp of opponents spans party lines. Republican Senator Tom Tillis wrote on social platform X that public executions are something "oppressive dictators" do, and "should not happen in America." Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, in an interview with CNN, called the decision "disgusting." Tillis, who belongs to the same ruling party, made such a statement, making the rationale for the public live stream particularly fragile.

The BBC report also reconstructed a detail from the day of the shooting: a female soldier had told Hasan that she was pregnant, and a gunshot immediately followed. "We heard a gunshot, and the last thing that girl said was: 'Oh my God, my baby, my baby,'" Lunsford recalled. Lunsford himself was shot seven times that afternoon, including above the left eye, in the back, and elsewhere. He told the BBC that he later chose to forgive Hasan as a Christian, "because if I don't forgive him, I cannot heal."

This is the first military execution carried out in the US in over 60 years. This instance, personally pushed by the defense secretary and packaging state violence as so-called "public education" through a live broadcast, is already rare in common-law countries. The multiple legal obstacles surrounding the public live stream also mean that even if the defense secretary's intent is clear, whether the execution can ultimately be carried out remains uncertain.