The Pentagon says it plans to livestream the scheduled execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009 — a move that would make the military execution available for public viewing online. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that people should be able to watch because, he argued, the execution would demonstrate the consequences of such crimes. The Defense Department confirmed Friday that the execution would be livestreamed, adding that details would come later. Hasan, 56, has been on military death row since his 2013 conviction and death sentence. President Donald Trump approved his execution by firing squad, which is scheduled for the afternoon of Dec. 3 at Fort Hood. It would be the first U.S. military firing-squad execution since World War II. The schedule is not certain. Legal experts say Hasan could seek to delay the execution for years by filing a federal habeas corpus petition. Capital punishment scholar Michael Radelet, a professor emeritus at the University of Colorado Boulder, also said outside groups could challenge the livestream plan, and that it is unclear whether Hegseth’s announcement will determine how the execution is ultimately handled. If carried out as announced, the livestream would mark the first public execution in the United States in nearly a century and the first known to be broadcast live online. The last high-profile public execution in the country was the 1936 hanging of Rainey Bethea in Owensboro, Kentucky. About 20,000 people gathered to watch. Public outrage over the spectacle helped prompt Kentucky to ban public executions in 1938. Public executions fell out of favor in part because they were no longer widely seen as a deterrent and because authorities worried that botched or gruesome deaths could turn public opinion against capital punishment, Radelet said. Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said executions have become less visible over time, with some states restricting media access to witnesses. The closest recent U.S. precedent for remote viewing was the 2001 execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. The Justice Department arranged a closed-circuit broadcast for victims’ relatives and survivors; it was not open to the general public. The Pentagon’s plan drew criticism from elected officials, religious leaders and human-rights advocates. Vice President JD Vance said he would not watch if the execution is livestreamed. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, while supporting Hasan’s death sentence, called a public broadcast “beyond disgusting.” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut described public executions as medieval. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said a public execution would damage the nation’s moral standing and urged officials to reconsider. Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the plan a stunt and said it would give Hasan more attention. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington also urged the Pentagon to reverse course, arguing that a country should not broadcast a person’s death for entertainment. Justin Mazzola, deputy research director at Amnesty International USA, said the livestream proposal would compound the cruelty of capital punishment. Radelet said a public firing squad execution could further erode support for the death penalty, which was at a five-decade low in 2025, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The Pentagon has not released details about how the broadcast would work. The possibility of a federal court challenge means both the timing of Hasan’s execution and whether the public would see it remain uncertain.