The first US Army execution to be broadcast live in 45 years

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Amid the escalating controversy in the United States about the death penalty, a Pentagon official confirmed that the scheduled execution by firing squad for Nidal Hassan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas during a mass shooting in 2009, will be broadcast live over the Internet on December 3, in an unprecedented step.

Thus, Hassan, a former army psychiatrist, will become the first person to be executed by firing squad by the US Army since 1945.

Defense Minister Pete Hegseth had previously announced that he intended to announce that Hassan's execution would take place publicly. Hegseth said that the decision to execute Hassan by firing squad in the same place where the shooting was carried out was "self-evident."

He also added, "We will make sure that people are able to watch the event, and that it is public, because people need to understand that... there are serious consequences for such actions."

This decision came after a military jury had issued a death sentence for Hassan in August 2013, after convicting him of a total of 45 charges that varied between premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder, for opening fire at a medical facility inside the vast military base in central Texas.

The shooting incident occurred weeks before Hassan, now 56, was scheduled to be sent to Afghanistan. He was partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair as a result of a police gunshot wound during his arrest.

Note that under US military law, the US President must agree to carry out the death sentence by firing squad. President Donald Trump has actually agreed to this based on Hegseth's recommendation, as the Pentagon revealed last Monday.

It is noteworthy that, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, the last known executions carried out by American military teams were in 1945.