Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan's execution set for December 3: What we know about the livestream row

US President Donald Trump has said he is still deciding whether to allow the planned execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan to be livestreamed, while Vice President JD Vance has expressed doubts about whether the broadcast will go ahead, saying he would not watch it if it does.

Hasan, a former US Army psychiatrist, was sentenced to death in 2013 for killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009. His execution is scheduled for December 3 and is expected to be carried out by firing squad.

The Pentagon had indicated that the execution would be livestreamed after Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the public would be able to watch it. However, Trump's latest remarks have left the proposed broadcast uncertain, despite his support for the death penalty in Hasan's case.

“We’re making a determination about that, but he will be killed. He will be, through firing squad,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday, October 9.

Trump also referred to the number of people killed and wounded in the attack while expressing support for Hasan's execution.

JD Vance says he will not watch execution livestream

Vance, who converted to Catholicism, questioned whether the Pentagon would proceed with the livestream, despite its earlier confirmation of the plan.

“I don't know that that's actually going to happen,” Vance told reporters on Friday when asked about the proposed broadcast.

He said Hasan had committed what he considered “the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11”, adding that the controversy over the execution method should not overshadow the crimes.

“So whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don't forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people,” Vance said.

“Now, that said, I mean, look, if it's ultimately livestreamed, I'm not going to be watching it,” he added.

Pentagon says execution will be made public

The Pentagon confirmed the livestream plan on Thursday after Hegseth said the military would ensure people could watch the execution.

“We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public,” Hegseth said.

In a video shared on official Pentagon accounts on X, he argued that the execution would underline the consequences of such attacks.

“People need to understand that... there's serious consequence for these types of things,” Hegseth said.

If carried out as planned, Hasan's execution would be the first US military firing squad execution since 1945, according to the information cited in reports on the case. The last US military execution took place in 1961, when John Bennett was hanged for rape and attempted murder.

The proposed livestream has drawn bipartisan opposition, including from some Republicans, as well as religious leaders and international observers.

Pope Leo renews opposition to death penalty

The controversy has unfolded amid renewed debate over capital punishment in the United States, following a botched lethal injection involving a woman in Tennessee last week.

Pope Leo XIV also renewed his opposition to the death penalty on Saturday, saying it violated human dignity and deprived people of the opportunity for redemption.

“The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment,” Leo said in a social media post marking the World Day Against the Death Penalty.

“The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” he added. The Pope did not directly refer to the Pentagon's livestream plan.

The Catholic Church has long opposed capital punishment, placing Vance's comments in the context of a wider debate over the morality of the death penalty and the public broadcasting of an execution.

What happened in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting?

Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting spree at Fort Hood, a US military installation in Texas, in November 2009. Twelve of those killed and 30 of the wounded were members of the military.

A civilian police officer who responded to the attack shot Hasan, leaving him paralysed from the waist down.

Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, represented himself during his trial, called no witnesses and gave no testimony. He did not attempt to deny the charges and was sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013.

During the proceedings, the court heard that Hasan opposed the US military's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and had communicated online with radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, an alleged Al-Qaeda figure and US citizen who was later killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.

Hasan's execution remains scheduled for December 3. However, while Trump has backed carrying out the death sentence by firing squad, whether the execution will be livestreamed remains uncertain, with the President saying a decision is still being made.