President Donald Trump has sparked international outrage after approving the live firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, a move that would mark the first public execution in the US in 90 years. The decision threatens to align the US with regimes such as Iran and the Taliban, which still carry out public executions.
Trump confirmed he gave the green light for the unprecedented public execution of Hasan, who killed 13 people in a 2009 military base rampage. When asked on Friday (October 9) on the White House lawn about whether he approved the plan, Trump said: "Did I approve? I absolutely did."
He added: "I'm going to make a determination about that, but he will be killed... I really don't care how he goes as long as he goes."
Pentagon confirms December execution date
The Pentagon confirmed the killer will face a military firing squad on December 3, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushing to broadcast it live online to act as a "deterrent" to terrorists. If the broadcast goes ahead, it will mark the first public execution in the US since Rainey Bethea was hanged before a crowd of 20,000 in Kentucky in 1936. It will also be the first ever to be streamed live.
According to Amnesty International, only a tiny handful of rogue regimes carry out public executions in the modern world. These include Iran, which carried out at least 11 public executions last year; Afghanistan, where public executions have surged under Taliban rule; Saudi Arabia and North Korea, which still enforce public killings using firing squads and decapitation; and Yemen, which has repeatedly carried out public judicial executions in city squares.
Global condemnation and domestic backlash
The move triggered immediate condemnation across the globe and a furious backlash at home. The United Nations slammed the livestream as "tantamount to a public execution" that directly breaches the global ban on torture.
Even Trump's political allies revolted. Republican Senator Thom Tillis called the public broadcast "beyond disgusting", CBS reported. He further warned it mimics "what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do."
Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley warned: "That is not the company we want to keep." Even Vice-President JD Vance backed away from the plan, admitting: "If it's ultimately live-streamed, I'm not going to be watching it."
Background of the Fort Hood shooter
Former US Army major Nidal Malik Hasan is a radicalised military psychiatrist. Hasan joined the US military in 1988, with the Army paying for his medical degree before he qualified as a doctor specialising in psychiatry.
He rose to the rank of major and was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas, where his primary duty was counseling soldiers returning from combat who were suffering from severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. After the shooting, investigations later revealed Hasan had undergone a process of self-radicalisation while serving as an officer, regularly exchanging emails with radical Yemeni cleric and al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki prior to the attack.
