8 in 10 Americans oppose live-streaming execution of Fort Hood shooter
A slim majority of the public supports using a firing squad to execute Nidal Malik Hasan, but most are against broadcasting it, a Post-ABC-Ipsos poll finds.
Live streaming it is “going too far, and it undermines everything you’re doing. It doesn’t make any sense,” said Lawrence Sagstetter, 66, of St. Paul, Minnesota, who identifies as a political independent. “It’s just going to cause more of an uproar, not only nationally but internationally.”
Hasan, an American-born Muslim and former U.S. Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and injured 32 others after he opened fire at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center in Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. Hasan was left partially paralyzed after being shot by officers responding to the attack and uses a wheelchair.
There is a partisan divide in opinion about live-streaming the execution: Ninety-one percent of Democrats say they oppose live-streaming the execution, while 64 percent of Republicans and 83 percent of independents say the same, according to the poll. Among self-identified MAGA Republicans — those who support President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement — 43 percent want the execution to be live-streamed, while 55 percent oppose it.
MAGA Republican men were the only subgroup more likely to support live streaming the execution than not. Of those, 57 percent say Hasan’s execution should be publicly viewable, whereas 29 percent of MAGA Republican women say it should be live-streamed.
Support for executing Fort Hood shooter by firing squad
Q: As you may know, former U.S. Army officer Nidal Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people in a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. Would you support or oppose executing Hasan by firing squad?
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth caused an uproar last week when he said he wanted Hasan’s execution, scheduled for Dec. 3 in Texas, to be available for public viewing “because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.” Trump has said that he “absolutely” approved live-streaming Hasan’s execution, but several top Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance, have expressed concern about whether it should be broadcast.
“We’ve got to think through the policy implications of all that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said this week, warning that video of Hasan’s execution could become “a recruiting tool for future terrorists.”
Hasan, who acted as his own attorney during a 22-day court-martial, was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to death in 2013. He admitted responsibility for the shooting during the court-martial, saying he had been on the wrong side of a war against Islam and had switched over. Hasan had been scheduled to go to Afghanistan at the end of November 2009 but did not want to deploy, a military prosecutor told the court.
Bruce Gonka, 70, a Republican from Lewiston, New York, said he does not support live-streaming Hasan’s execution because he believes it could put Americans abroad in danger.
“To put it on TV is not right. It could open up a whole can of worms. … It’s all for shock, and we don’t need that. We’re better than that,” Gonka said.
Before the Post-ABC-Ipsos survey, polling on whether Americans support public executions was scant. In 2001, the Pew Research Center asked whether Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh’s execution should be broadcast on television: Twenty-four percent of respondents said yes, while 73 percent said no. More than two decades later, the polling remains comparable.
If Hasan’s execution is carried out, it would mark the first U.S. military execution since April 13, 1961, when Army Pvt. John A. Bennett was hanged after being convicted of rape and attempted murder, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, which monitors capital punishment. The military’s last known firing squad execution was carried out by “musketry” on Nov. 9, 1945, according to the group.
According to the Post-ABC-Ipsos poll, Americans who served in the military are more likely than the overall population to support both executing Hasan by firing squad and live-streaming the execution. Of Americans with military service, 72 percent support executing Hasan by firing squad, compared with 51 percent of those who did not serve in the military. About two-thirds of Americans who served in the military oppose live-streaming the execution, while about one-third support it.
Patrick Leintz, 61, a Marine Corps veteran from Star Prairie, Wisconsin, said his own military service influenced his views. He supports both Hasan’s execution by firing squad and the decision to live-stream it.
“[Hasan] was a major, for Christ’s sake. He was very high up, and then he just turned and killed his own people,” said Leintz, who noted he does not have a party affiliation and went on to describe the military as “a brotherhood, a sisterhood.”
“We’re all together, no matter what. We’re there to defend the country, whether you like it or not,” Leintz added. “If you didn’t like it, then don’t join. Why did you join?”
Leintz said he will not watch Hasan’s execution if it’s live streamed but felt that people should have the option.
“It’s their choice. If they want to watch it, that’s fine. If they don’t, then don’t watch,” he said.
Aiofe Walsh and Scott Clement contributed to this report.
Read detailed results of the Washington Post-Ipsos poll. The poll was conducted online Oct. 9-13 among 2,545 U.S. adults nationwide reached through the Ipsos Knowledge Panel, an ongoing panel of U.S. households recruited by mail using random sampling methods. Overall results have a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points. The sample was weighted to match population demographics, 2024 turnout/vote choice and political partisanship.
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