The Pentagon’s plan to livestream the firing squad execution of a former US Army major who shot dead 13 people at a military base in 2009 has been described as “barbaric” and “unprecedented in the modern era”.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has confirmed that Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan’s execution – scheduled to take place on December 3 – will be “public”.

“So he’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be. ,” Hegseth told conservative TV outlet Real America’s Voice News.

“And 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.”

When asked if Hasan had made any final requests or reached out to the Trump administration, Hegseth replied: “Don’t care. We’ll see him on December 3rd.”

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who held the rank of major, was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting at the Fort Hood military base 17 years ago.

Hasan, who later described himself as a soldier who had “switched sides”, walked into a medical building where soldiers were waiting in long lines to receive immunisations and medical clearance for deployment. He shouted “Allahu akbar” – Arabic for “God is great!” – and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun.

Officials in the Pentagon confirmed on Thursday (US time) that the execution, to take place at the same base, would be livestreamed and that more details would follow.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell had said on Monday that President Donald Trump had approved the execution of Hasan.

Hasan described himself as a soldier who had ‘switched sides’. Photo: AP Photo: AAP

CBS’s senior national security correspondent, Charlie D’Agata, noted that if it goes ahead, Hasan’s execution would be the first carried out by a US Army firing squad since World War II.

“Obviously this would be an extraordinary event – an execution viewable by the general public is virtually unheard of,” D’Agata said.

Experts have pointed out that the plan to use the firing squad and livestream the execution raises a number of potential legal issues.

Although there were more than 2700 executions carried on in 17 countries last year, Iran and Afghanistan were the only countries who carried them out publicly, according to the BBC.

It quoted John Mills, a lawyer who works with death-row inmates, as saying the decision to livestream Hasan’s execution was “unprecedented in the modern era”.

“Seeking to make it livestreamed, a firing squad execution, is little more than attention-seeking by the Trump administration and is unlikely to occur, much less deliver any semblance of justice,” he said.

Yale Law School lecturer Eugene R Fidell agreed, telling the BBC:  “To livestream an execution is just so out of the Middle Ages.”

Australian-based political scientist and former political prisoner Kylie Moore-Gilbert also weighed in, describing the plan to livestream the execution as “repulsive”.

“The death penalty is barbaric, unjust and a sign of moral and civilisational failure (look no further than what just happened to Christa Pike),” Moore-Gilbert, who was detained in an Iranian prison for 804 days from 2018-2020, wrote on X.

“If the United States wants to occupy the moral high ground, resorting to Islamic Republic-style executions is not the way to get there.”

It is repulsive that Pete Hegseth wants to live stream the execution by firing squad of the Fort Hood shooter. This comes amidst a shocking wave of public executions in Iran of protesters and political prisoners, many of them young boys in their late teens or early twenties. The death penalty is barbaric, unjust and a sign of moral and civilisational failure (look no further than what just happened to Christa Pike). If the United States wants to occupy the moral high ground, resorting to Islamic Republic-style executions is not the way to get there.

— Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert (@KMooreGilbert) October 9, 2026

During Hasan’s trial, it was revealed he spent weeks planning the deadly attack, and his preparation included videotaping a sales clerk showing him how to change the magazine on the pistol that he purchased.

He would later go to a gun range outside Austin and ask for advice on how to reload with speed and precision from an instructor.

Soldiers later testified that Hasan’s rapid reloading made it all but impossible to stop the shooting. Investigators recovered 146 shell casings inside the building and dozens more outside, where Hasan shot at the backs of soldiers fleeing toward the parking lot.

Hasan said it was an effort to stop them from going to Afghanistan and killing his fellow Muslims. A military judge barred him from presenting that as a defence during his trial.

Hasan made almost no effort to defend himself in court, telling jurors when he acted as his own counsel that evidence would show he was the shooter .

–with AP