US plans first public execution in nearly 90 years for Fort Hood killer
What's next: The Pentagon said Nidal Hasan is set to be executed by firing squad in December, with the killing livestreamed.
The United States is preparing to carry out its first public execution in nearly nine decades after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth moved to make Nidal Hasan's death sentence a livestreamed military event. Hasan, who killed 13 unarmed service members in the 2009 Fort Hood attack in Texas, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad in December, the Pentagon said. Public executions largely disappeared after Rainey Bethea's 1936 hanging in Owensboro, Kentucky drew an estimated crowd of 20,000 and became a national embarrassment. Kentucky banned public executions about 18 months later, and a smaller 1937 hanging in Missouri is widely regarded as the nation's last public execution until now.