On December 3, 2026, the U.S. Army plans to execute Fort Hood mass murderer Nidal Hasan by firing squad — and broadcast it live to the world. Alonzo Lunsford, a former staff sergeant who survived seven gunshot wounds from Hasan, says turning an execution into a livestream dishonors the 13 Americans who died that day.
This is the first time the American government has proposed broadcasting a military execution online, and it forces a question the country hasn't confronted in the modern era: whether the state's duty is justice or spectacle.
Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, walked into the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Fort Hood, Texas, on November 5, 2009, and opened fire on unarmed soldiers. He killed 13 and wounded 32. At his 2013 court-martial, Hasan admitted he acted to protect Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan from the U.S. military. He was shot during the attack and now uses a wheelchair. Seventeen years of appeals later, the Army is ready to carry out the sentence.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has defended the livestream as a deterrent. "We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public," Hegseth said. "Because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things." President Trump said Friday he approves of the plan but acknowledged a final determination still needs to be made.
Lunsford wants Hasan dead. He told Fox News Digital he would prefer that one of the surviving victims or a family member of the fallen be allowed to pull the trigger. He has also forgiven his attacker. "The weird thing about it, I've forgiven him because my faith does not allow me to heal and continue unless I forgive that man," Lunsford said.
But forgiveness and justice are not the same as entertainment. "It's not a spectacle," Lunsford told Fox News. "There's nothing glorified in the smell of human flesh, blood and gunpowder. It's a smell you will never forget. It's a taste that you will never forget." He warned Americans not to treat it like a party: "This is not somewhere you all start throwing some meat on the grill, get outside and say, hey, we're gonna watch them unalive this guy by firing squad. Don't do that."
Lunsford told the BBC the execution should only be viewable by victims and their families. "As far as the families of the fallen and the families of the survivors, and the survivors themselves, yes, I think we should be able to look at it uncensored," he said. But he drew the line at putting it on the internet for anyone — including children — to watch.
BBC noted that only two nations carried out public executions last year: Iran and Afghanistan, with a combined 17 known killings. Hasan's civilian lawyer, John Galligan, told the BBC the event is being treated like a "carnival" and resembles "the closest thing to a lynch mob mentality that we used to see in the olden days." The UN warned the broadcast would "constitute a form of cruel" treatment — though the BBC report cut off before completing the statement.
Under Army Regulation 190-55, military executions are restricted to certain categories of witnesses: journalists, relatives, and officials. Minors are excluded. A livestream blows those boundaries apart. No screen on the internet checks IDs.
The military justice system took 17 years to reach this point. The families of the fallen have earned closure and dignity — not a broadcast that reduces their loss to content in someone's feed. The state can carry out its sentence without turning a firing squad into a streaming event. The question is whether Washington has the discipline to choose justice over attention.
