‘I DON’T AGREE’

Fort Hood Survivor Slams Pete Hegseth’s Live Execution Plan

There has not been a public execution in the U.S. for 90 years.

A former U.S. Army sergeant who survived the Fort Hood mass shooting called out Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream the killer’s execution by firing squad.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today Program on Friday, Alonzo Lunsford, 59, raised concerns about the “effect” and “message” a livestream could send to young people.

“To show the whole thing without it being censored for the general public, for me personally, I don’t agree with that, but it’s not about my personal belief,” Lunsford said.

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Survivors and their families, however, should be able to watch, he added.

Lunsford, a 19-year Army veteran and recipient of the Purple Heart, was shot seven times by Nidal Malik Hasan, a former U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, during his rampage in November 2009.

Hasan killed 13 people and injured 33 others, making it the deadliest mass shooting on a U.S. Army base. He has been on death row since his conviction and sentencing in 2013.

This week, Hegseth announced that Hasan will be executed by firing squad, with his death broadcast to the public via livestream.

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Although Lunsford told the BBC that he disagrees with the public livestream plan, he said that the firing squad was “befitting” for Hasan because other methods like lethal injection would be “doing him a favor.”

“I don’t really have any sympathy for him as far as firing squad vs lethal injection, hanging or gas chamber, because he didn’t have that same compassion when he did the deed on 5 November,” Lunsford said.

The former sergeant said he would attend Hasan’s execution.

“I’m gonna be there [to watch in person] and before they pull the trigger, I want him to look at me in my eyes and I look at him in his eyes and I want him to know: ‘Dude you failed, I’m still here,’” he said.

The U.S. has not had a public execution since 1936 when Rainey Bethea was hanged in Kentucky for the rape and killing of a 70-year-old woman named Lishia Edwards.

Bethea’s death had an estimated 20,000 spectators. The spectacle led to a U.S. ban on public executions.

A very small number of countries still carry out public executions. According to CBS News, Afghanistan and Iran are the only two known governments to execute anyone publicly in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Neither country livestreams the killings.

It would also be the first military execution in 64 years.

“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there are serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth told the conservative network Real America’s Voice.

Hasan’s execution is set for December 3 at 1 p.m.

Pentagon officials confirmed the plan on Thursday.

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Evgenia AnastasakosBreaking News Intern

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