Hegseth says the Fort Hood shooter's execution will be public. It would be the first of its kind in 90 years

1 p.m.

That is roughly when a gunman opened fire on soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, on 5 November 2009. It is also the time the US Army has picked to execute him.

Nidal Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people that day. Now the US Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, says his death by firing squad will be public.

What did Hegseth say about the Fort Hood execution?

Hegseth spoke to Jack Posobiec of Real America's Voice this week. The interview was filmed on board the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

"We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public," he said, "because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things."

He also set out how it would look. He said it would happen on a Thursday at one o'clock, "which is when he did it," with "soldiers with rifles" forming the firing squad.

The date matches. The 2009 attack happened on a Thursday, and 3 December 2026 is a Thursday too.

Hegseth recommended the execution himself. He called the decision a "no-brainer", according to Al Jazeera.

CNN shared his words on Thursday and the post passed a million views. Most replies backed him, with many people writing some version of "let's get it done".

Photo: (DoD photo by Chad J. McNeeley) / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Will Nidal Hasan's execution be livestreamed?

At first, nobody knew what "public" meant. Would crowds be let into Fort Hood? Would it be on TV?

Then a Pentagon official told Al Jazeera the execution "will be livestreamed". Hegseth confirmed it in a post of his own, Axios reports.

The Pentagon has not yet said where the stream will be shown or who will be there in person. The White House was asked if President Donald Trump would watch. It sent the question to the Pentagon.

Army rules already say at least two media outlets must be picked to witness an execution. A livestream for anyone with a phone would go much further.

What happened at Fort Hood in 2009?

Hasan was an Army major and a psychiatrist. On 5 November 2009, he walked into a processing centre at Fort Hood. Soldiers were there for medical checks before going to Afghanistan.

He opened fire. Thirteen people died. Twelve were soldiers. More than 30 were wounded.

Police shot Hasan during the attack. He survived but was left partly paralysed.

At his trial he said he had targeted soldiers who were about to deploy to Afghanistan. A military jury found him guilty of 45 counts: 13 of premeditated murder and 32 of attempted murder. He was sentenced to death in August 2013.

The families spoke after the verdict. The mother of one young soldier who died called Hasan "a coward, a traitor, and a murderer" in a statement read to reporters, NBC News reported at the time.

Photo: Sgt. Ken Scar / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Why has it taken so long to execute Nidal Hasan?

Hasan has been on military death row for 13 years.

In the military, a death sentence goes through layers of appeals. Then one more step is needed that civilian courts do not have. The President must sign off personally.

On Monday, 5 October, the Pentagon said Trump had approved the execution on Hegseth's advice.

"Judgement day for Hasan has finally come," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote.

The acting Army Secretary, Adam Telle, then set the date. It is 3 December 2026, at 1 p.m. Central time, at Fort Hood.

That is 7 p.m. in London and 9 p.m. in Johannesburg. The execution will take place on the same base where the attack happened, not in a prison.

When was the last military execution in the US?

The last person the US military executed was Private John A. Bennett. He was hanged on 13 April 1961 for rape and attempted murder.

Firing squads go back even further. The last US military firing squads were during and just after World War II. The best-known case is Private Eddie Slovik, shot in France in January 1945 for desertion.

Hegseth has said he admires the World War II-era mindset of standing firm when attacked. In April, the Trump administration also added the firing squad as an approved federal method, along with gas and electrocution. Until then, lethal injection was the standard way the federal government carried out death sentences.

If it goes ahead, Hasan's death would be the first US Army firing squad since that war.

Is a public execution legal in the US?

For nearly a century, US executions have been closed events.

States let a small group watch. That usually means officials, a few reporters and family members of the victims. Cameras are kept out.

The last fully public execution in the US was in Owensboro, Kentucky, on 14 August 1936. No US state has held one since.

No state or federal execution in the US has ever been shown on television, Al Jazeera reports.

So a livestream would be a first. Military law works under its own rules, and the Pentagon has not explained the legal basis yet.

Not everyone who lost someone wanted Hasan to die. One man whose father was killed told reporters in 2013 that an execution was what Hasan wanted, because he hoped to be seen as a martyr.

South Africa has not had this debate in a long time. Our Constitutional Court struck down the death penalty in 1995. For a look at how executions play out in US states, read the Tennessee prisoner who survived two lethal doses. And if you follow Trump's other headline moves this month, see why he wants to call Putin about plague.

What happens on 3 December?

The Army has fixed the date, the hour and the place.

Seventeen years after the attack, Fort Hood will again be the scene at 1 p.m. This time a row of soldiers will be standing in it, and, if Hegseth keeps his word, the whole country can watch.