Damien Echols, who was freed from prison after spending almost two decades on death row, told Newsweek that livestreaming the upcoming execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be "detrimental" for American society.
Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3. A Pentagon official told Newsweek on Friday that Hasan’s execution would be livestreamed, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier said that it would be "public."
The attack on the military base occurred during the height of the global War on Terrorism; Hasan’s own statements presented the shooting as ideologically motivated. Before the attack, he exchanged emails with Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born cleric who was subsequently identified as an Al-Qaeda figure and who praised Hasan after the killings. At his court-martial, Hasan said he had been on the "wrong side" of what he called America’s "war on Islam" before he "switched sides."
Echols says he is still fighting to clear his name after being wrongly convicted in the "West Memphis 3” case. He told Newsweek he believes livestreaming Hasan’s execution will be "detrimental to the mental, emotional and spiritual health of society and civilization."
His comments come as the plan to livestream Hasan's execution has sparked a widespread backlash, including from some Republicans. There has been fresh scrutiny about how the death penalty is carried out in the U.S. following the botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee in late September. Polls have found support for the death penalty has been on the decline nationally over the last two decades.
If the plan goes ahead, it would be the first time the government has broadcast or livestreamed an execution in U.S. history. The brother of a soldier who was slain in the Fort Hood shooting has urged President Donald Trump to reconsider the plan in a letter provided exclusively to Newsweek. He said that he doesn’t want his brother’s death to become a "public spectacle."
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via email and is awaiting a response. A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment to Newsweek when asked if the plan to livestream Hasan's execution would be reconsidered.
...
Views on the Death Penalty
Echols, 51, now an author and magician, told Newsweek that his experience in prison has informed his view of capital punishment.
"I've seen all ends of the spectrum," he said. "I've seen people who completely turned their lives around, even while they were on death row."
Those people, he added, would never harm anyone ever again. "I think executing those people is a waste of potential," Echols said.
At the same time, he acknowledged that there were inmates who remained violent and dangerous. "People who, if they were freed today, not only would they probably go on to hurt other people, but were still hurting and killing other people even in prison," he said.
"I can't even say I’m 100 percent that I'm against the death penalty in all cases," he said. "I think it's an evil thing, but I think sometimes it would have to be employed in order to prevent an even greater evil from happening in the future."
Warning of Desensitization
After hearing the news of the Pentagon’s plan to livestream Hasan’s execution, Echols took to social media to urge people not to watch the broadcast. His post on X went viral, garnering more than 500,000 views and more than 10,000 likes.
"Don’t watch it. Whatever you believe about the death penalty, even if you think the person being executed deserves to die, don’t watch it," he wrote. "You cannot witness a human being being killed and simply walk away unchanged."
Echols said he made the post in response to what he views as a growing public appetite for true crime. "People who are just watching it for the sake of watching it and being interested in the ghoulish aspects of it," he added.
He said that repeated exposure to violent imagery can leave viewers desensitized.
Of the response to his post, he said: "A lot of people, for example, came forward or started posting stuff and saying, ‘I don't think this is true at all because I've been watching videos like this ever since I was a kid back when ISIS were posting beheading videos. I saw those and stuff like this doesn't even affect me anymore.'
"My whole point was that that’s the effect in and of itself. You've been desensitized to this stuff."
Echols also warned that a livestreamed execution could quickly spread beyond its intended audience through social media.
"We live in a day and age when people are going to start doing things like making memes out of it and posting little clips of it on X or other social media platforms," he said.
"People who don't want to see it, or shouldn't see it, like impressionable kids, are still going to be coming across it."
Impact on Society
In the years since his release from prison, Echols said he has watched as the nation has become increasingly polarized.
"I was locked up for a very long time and I've only been out for 15 years now," he said. "But, just in that 15 years, I have seen society, I've seen civilization in general, degrade and erode and disintegrate in every regard."
Echols said he fears livestreaming an execution could further accelerate those trends.
"I think it's going to lead to the degradation of society and civilization even more," he said. "I'm not talking about the execution itself and how people feel about it. I'm talking about things like reveling in the bloodlust of it to the point where you're livestreaming it."
Echols also raised concerns that broadcasting the execution could boost Hasan’s profile among extremists.
"Even if you believe that this guy is going to get what's coming to him by going through this process, I don't think it's wise to create another martyr for people who might take it on themselves to do that again in the future," he said.
Citing the 2011 operation that killed Osama bin Laden, Echols noted that U.S. authorities did not publicly broadcast the raid.
"They didn't livestream it," he said. "They had enough sense to know this is going to stir people up and enrage people."
Message to Trump
Echols, who said he is not a political person, added that he would urge the president to reconsider the plan.
"I'm not talking about for the sake of the guy or anything else in that regard," he said.
"I'm just saying for the sake of people who might see this and it's going to have a detrimental effect on them, like the children of the United States…with all due respect, maybe please reconsider this."
Trump Says He Approved Livestream Plan
Trump, a strong supporter of capital punishment, told reporters on Friday that he had personally approved the decision to livestream Hasan’s execution. "Did I approve? Absolutely," he said.
Earlier on Friday, when asked if he wanted the execution livestreamed and whether he was concerned the video could be used as propaganda, Trump said: "Well, they’re making a determination about that, but he will be killed.
"He will be through firing squad…I really don’t care how he goes, as long as he goes. And I think that the death penalty is a very worthy way of going for him."
When Is Hasan’s Execution?
The Army announced that Hasan’s execution will take place at Fort Hood, Texas, at 1 p.m. on December 3.
"It’s going to be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad," Hegseth said in an interview with Jack Posobiec of the conservative outlet Real America’s Voice aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln last week.
"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."
...
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who held the rank of major, walked into a medical building on November 5, 2009, where soldiers at Fort Hood were waiting to receive medical clearance for deployment.
He shouted "Allahu akbar"—Arabic for "God is great!”—and opened fire and also 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. He is paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in the back by law enforcement, and he now uses a wheelchair.
A military jury convicted Hasan of all 42 counts brought against him in 2013 and sentenced him to death. He acknowledged during his court-martial that he was the shooter and said he had "switched sides." The Army said Hasan's appellate process was completed after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his request for review in March 2025.
Trump approved the execution by firing squad on October 2, giving the Army authority to set the date. That came days after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute Christa Pike brought fresh scrutiny on how states carry out the death penalty, particularly when using lethal injection.
Hegseth said the military hasn’t executed a service member by firing squad since World War II. The last military execution took place on April 13, 1961 when Army Private John Bennett was executed by hanging.
What Is Next in Echols’ Case?
Echols is continuing to fight to clear his name after being convicted in the "West Memphis 3” case.
He was sentenced to death. His co-defendants Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley received life sentences after being convicted in the 1993 slayings of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, even though no physical evidence tied them to the crimes.
...
All three were released from prison in 2011 under a plea deal based on the results of DNA testing in 2007 that excluded them from the crime scene evidence, according to the Innocence Project. The deal allowed them to maintain their innocence yet plead guilty in exchange for 18-year sentences and credit for time served.
In 2024, the Arkansas Supreme Court allowed additional DNA testing of evidence from the crime scene.
Lonnie Soury, a spokesman for Echols' case, told Newsweek that the "testing process is ongoing, with results hoped for this fall."
Echols told Newsweek that among the evidence being tested are ligatures that were used to bind the victims.
"The last person to have touched the inside of those knots, the person who tied those knots, will have hopefully left skin cells behind inside of them," Echols said.
If usable DNA can be recovered, he believes it could identify the killer.
"We're hoping for conclusive…you know, just straight, dead-on evidence of who committed these murders," Echols said. "Something that can't be explained away."
He noted that testing delays have repeatedly slowed the process, but he remains hopeful.
"It's been a long hard road, but, finally, it seems like maybe there's a finish line in sight," Echols said.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Cannon and James Debens