The Pentagon has announced that it will livestream the first military firing squad execution in more than 65 years. The public will be able to watch the execution of Nidal Hasan, the man convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood in Texas.
This week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in an interview that the execution of Hasan would be open for public viewing at the Texas base where the attack took place. “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth told podcaster Jack Posobiec aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on October 7.
Hasan’s execution is scheduled for December 3 at 1 pm local time. It will mark the military’s first firing squad execution since the end of World War II.
Indeed, the death penalty in the US dates all the way back to the 1600s. Executions consisted of public hangings, but both the location and method of execution have changed over the years.
The death penalty remains a controversial and divisive topic. In this gallery, we focus on the historical context of each state and the resulting relationship with capital punishment. Click on to find out which states still have the death penalty.