Driving the news: Hegseth was asked about Nidal Hasan, the man convicted of killing 13 people in a 2009 shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas.
- Hasan is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3 at Fort Hood.
What they say: Hegseth told Real America’s Voice that Hasan “is going to be put to death by firing squad. As he should be.”
- “We’ll make sure people can watch it. Let it be public. Because people need to understand that there are serious consequences to these kinds of things.”
State of play: The Defense Ministry declined to comment on Hegseth’s remarks, leaving questions about how the public might witness the execution.
- The army has not explained how it plans to carry out the firing squad execution, AP reports.
- It is unclear whether Hegseth’s remarks mean the execution will be open to public spectators, streamed or televised, or made available to certain people.
Zoom out: It would also be the first American military execution since 1961.
- The last American military execution by firing squad was in 1945, when Pvt. Eddie Slovik was shot and killed for desertion in France, according to NPR.
Death by firing squad are rare in the United States
- Only Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah allow this method, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
- Last year, South Carolina carried out the state’s first execution by firing squad – the first in the United States in 15 years.
- The last public execution in the United States took place in 1936, when Rainey Bethea, a black man convicted of raping a white woman, was hanged in Kentucky.
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