US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the execution of the Fort Hood gunman would not be livestreamed, but that immediate families of the victims would be able to view it in person.
Nidal Hasan’s execution — scheduled for Dec 3 at Fort Hood, Texas, where he gunned down 13 people in 2009 — is set to be the first by a US military firing squad since 1945.
“I think streaming the execution for all to see might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan but, many very good and well-meaning people would rather not watch him die through streaming or through any other visual device,” Trump wrote.
“He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed. That said, the execution may be viewed in person by the immediate families of the victims, if they so choose. They deserve to witness JUSTICE!”
Some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance, as well as religious leaders and international observers, had expressed doubts about the Pentagon’s plan to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan.
Recent polls have also shown a majority of Americans opposed livestreaming it.
Hasan, a former US Army psychiatrist, was sentenced to death in August 2013, after a military jury found him guilty of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder.
Twelve of the 13 people Hasan killed and 30 of those he wounded were soldiers. He was left partially paralysed and confined to a wheelchair from being shot by police during his arrest.
The shooting came weeks before Hasan, now 56, was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan.
Under US military law, a US president must approve an execution by firing squad. President Donald Trump did so on Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recommendation, the Pentagon said last week.