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This Week in MAGA #94: Streaming Executions
The execution will be of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former U.S. Army major convicted of carrying out the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting, in which 13 people were killed and more than 30 wounded. President Donald Trump approved Hasan’s death sentence on 2 October 2026, and the Army has scheduled his execution by firing squad at Fort Hood at 1 p.m. Central Time on 3 December 2026.
The extraordinary additional step we learned about this past week is via Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement that the execution will be livestreamed so that the general public can watch it. The Pentagon has confirmed the livestream, although it has not yet explained which platform will carry it or what restrictions, if any, will apply.
Legal Reactions?
Military-law specialists have questioned the transformation of an execution from a controlled legal procedure into a public spectacle. Geoffrey Corn, a former Army JAG officer and law professor, said the livestream raises moral issues distinct from the underlying death penalty. Others have made the opposite transparency argument: Fordham law professor Deborah Denno has suggested that allowing the public actually to see what capital punishment involves could make the process more transparent.
