SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A woman holds a sign during a demonstration outside the department of corrections before the scheduled firing squad execution South Carolina inmate Mikal Mahdi on April 11, 2025 in Columbia, South Carolina.
(Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Don't Allow Donald Trump to Shoot an Unarmed Man
I watched a man fight for his life under nitrogen gas for at least sixteen minutes. Now Trump has
approved a firing squad for a paralyzed prisoner.
Oct 19, 2026
Before his nitrogen execution last year, Anthony Boyd wanted to figure out a way to help people understand the horror he was about to experience. He told me to watch his legs. When he couldn't go any further, he was going to lift up his legs one final time. Once and for all, he wanted to settle that nitrogen executions were neither quick nor humane.
The State of Alabama controlled the gas, the mask, the restraints, the room. Boyd had nothing left to control but himself... his legs.
At approximately 5:57 p.m., the nitrogen began flowing. Boyd clenched his fist. He raised his head. Then he lifted his legs several inches, exactly as he had promised me. By my watch, he fought for his life for at least sixteen minutes, maybe even closer to nineteen depending on when the gas actually entered the mask. He was not pronounced dead until 6:33 p.m. Afterward, officials had the audacity to call his movements involuntary and insignificant. They all wanted to talk about the justice that was just done. I knew better. The lies and misdirections of government are always endless.
The cameras became the problem... not the killing itself. This should send chills down the spine of our country.
The primary thing that these executions produce is more horror.
As a spiritual advisor to men on death row throughout the nation, I have witnessed fourteen executions in five states, which is more than any other spiritual leader in the nation. Repeatedly, I have watched a condemned man's body tell the witnesses what the official statement would later explain away. I know what the government's descriptions and language of procedure can conceal.
I carry that knowledge into what is coming at Fort Hood. On December 3, the United States Army intends to execute Nidal Hasan by firing squad. President Donald Trump approved the death sentence in early October. It will be the first firing squad carried out under federal authority since the Army shot Private Eddie Slovik for desertion in a French courtyard in January 1945. The country went 81 years without doing this. Of course, it is Trump who is bringing it back.
Don't think for a second I am going to skip the horrors of Nidal Hasan's actions. Indeed, Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. The people he killed had families and futures. The survivors have carried 17 years of consequences. Their suffering must never become an afterthought. Opposing this execution does not require anyone to shrink the horror of what came before it. But those deaths do not make the killing of Hasan an automatic act of justice. They also do not lift the moral responsibility from the president who has authorized the shooting.
Who deserves to die and who deserves to live? The rifles at Fort Hood will not go back to the armory when it is over. They will be cleaned, racked and kept ready for whoever is next.
The Army's own announcement lays out the chain. The president alone can approve a military prisoner's death sentence. Trump exercised that authority. He does not have to pull the trigger to own what happens when the rifles are raised. Other people will fire. The directive to shoot an unarmed paralyzed man will come straight from the Oval Office.
Of course, if the horror wasn't horrific enough. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth proposed livestreaming the execution so the world could watch America kill Hasan. Trump argued that streaming it might be a strong deterrent. On October 15, after widespread criticism from all sides of the political spectrum, Trump backed down. Hasan would be shot to death behind closed doors. He seems to glow each time he makes such a pronouncement.
So, the cameras became the problem... not the killing itself.
This should send chills down the spine of our country. The government considered turning a human death into a demonstration of national power. When the demonstration met resistance, the administration dropped the audience while keeping the shooting. The only difference between a public execution and a private one is the number of witnesses.
Consider whose hand is on the order. This is a president whose own defense secretary, Mark Esper, wrote that during the protests of 2020 Trump asked whether the people in the streets could simply be shot in the legs. This is a president who entertained broadcasting a man's death as a warning to the world. He is now being handed rifles, a chair and a legal pathway to use them against a prisoner who cannot stand.
Anyone who thinks that Trump is going to be comfortable stopping at Hasan, has not listened to those who have worked closest with him.
The only difference between a public execution and a private one is the number of witnesses.
A firing squad is a capability before it is a sentence. Once a government has built the chair, qualified the shooters, written the protocol and fired on one man, it owns that capability for good. It will not retire with Hasan. South Carolina shot three men in 2025. In one of those executions, an outside pathologist who reviewed the state's autopsy found the bullets largely missed the man's heart. Meaning, he bled out for an extended period of time. Idaho spent more than $1.2 million building a firing squad it has not used. Those who think this is an inexpensive, certain, or quick enterprise are sorely mistaken. The federal government is about to join the blunders that have always plagued the firing squad, and human executions in general for that matter. Who deserves to die and who deserves to live? The rifles at Fort Hood will not go back to the armory when it is over. They will be cleaned, racked and kept ready for whoever is next.
Hasan is where that question begins. He is not where it ends.
I do not want this president to have the power to shoot an unarmed person. Not Hasan. Not a drug dealer. Not a protester. Not anyone. Unchecked power does not know the difference between them. It only knows the hand that holds it. A man who once asked about shooting Americans in the legs is about to find out what it feels like to give the command for a volley.
Once a soldier learns to fire on a bound prisoner on command, the distance to the next bound prisoner gets shorter.
I think of the soldiers who may be ordered to take part. They entered an institution that asks them to protect human life, sometimes at terrible cost. They should not have to pretend that shooting a restrained man is another administrative duty. Once a soldier learns to fire on a bound prisoner on command, the distance to the next bound prisoner gets shorter. Once a president learns he can order it, the list of people he might order it for gets longer.
I do not want the families of the Fort Hood victims forgotten. Their loss deserves more than a government telling them that another death settles the account. One murder will never offset another murder.
Besides, isn't Donald Trump the last person on earth you would trust with a rifle?
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood
Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood is a death row spiritual advisor who has accompanied fourteen people to their executions, including the first and eighth nitrogen executions in the United States. Rolling Stone has called him "the last face death row inmates see" and made him the subject of the Rolling Stone Films documentary The Spiritual Advisor. He is the founder of the Execution Intervention Project and author of The Lie of the Clean Kill: Idaho, the Firing Squad, and the Allure of the Bullet, free at firingsquads.org.
Before his nitrogen execution last year, Anthony Boyd wanted to figure out a way to help people understand the horror he was about to experience. He told me to watch his legs. When he couldn't go any further, he was going to lift up his legs one final time. Once and for all, he wanted to settle that nitrogen executions were neither quick nor humane.
The State of Alabama controlled the gas, the mask, the restraints, the room. Boyd had nothing left to control but himself... his legs.
At approximately 5:57 p.m., the nitrogen began flowing. Boyd clenched his fist. He raised his head. Then he lifted his legs several inches, exactly as he had promised me. By my watch, he fought for his life for at least sixteen minutes, maybe even closer to nineteen depending on when the gas actually entered the mask. He was not pronounced dead until 6:33 p.m. Afterward, officials had the audacity to call his movements involuntary and insignificant. They all wanted to talk about the justice that was just done. I knew better. The lies and misdirections of government are always endless.
The cameras became the problem... not the killing itself. This should send chills down the spine of our country.
The primary thing that these executions produce is more horror.
As a spiritual advisor to men on death row throughout the nation, I have witnessed fourteen executions in five states, which is more than any other spiritual leader in the nation. Repeatedly, I have watched a condemned man's body tell the witnesses what the official statement would later explain away. I know what the government's descriptions and language of procedure can conceal.
I carry that knowledge into what is coming at Fort Hood. On December 3, the United States Army intends to execute Nidal Hasan by firing squad. President Donald Trump approved the death sentence in early October. It will be the first firing squad carried out under federal authority since the Army shot Private Eddie Slovik for desertion in a French courtyard in January 1945. The country went 81 years without doing this. Of course, it is Trump who is bringing it back.
Don't think for a second I am going to skip the horrors of Nidal Hasan's actions. Indeed, Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. The people he killed had families and futures. The survivors have carried 17 years of consequences. Their suffering must never become an afterthought. Opposing this execution does not require anyone to shrink the horror of what came before it. But those deaths do not make the killing of Hasan an automatic act of justice. They also do not lift the moral responsibility from the president who has authorized the shooting.
Who deserves to die and who deserves to live? The rifles at Fort Hood will not go back to the armory when it is over. They will be cleaned, racked and kept ready for whoever is next.
The Army's own announcement lays out the chain. The president alone can approve a military prisoner's death sentence. Trump exercised that authority. He does not have to pull the trigger to own what happens when the rifles are raised. Other people will fire. The directive to shoot an unarmed paralyzed man will come straight from the Oval Office.
Of course, if the horror wasn't horrific enough. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth proposed livestreaming the execution so the world could watch America kill Hasan. Trump argued that streaming it might be a strong deterrent. On October 15, after widespread criticism from all sides of the political spectrum, Trump backed down. Hasan would be shot to death behind closed doors. He seems to glow each time he makes such a pronouncement.
So, the cameras became the problem... not the killing itself.
This should send chills down the spine of our country. The government considered turning a human death into a demonstration of national power. When the demonstration met resistance, the administration dropped the audience while keeping the shooting. The only difference between a public execution and a private one is the number of witnesses.
Consider whose hand is on the order. This is a president whose own defense secretary, Mark Esper, wrote that during the protests of 2020 Trump asked whether the people in the streets could simply be shot in the legs. This is a president who entertained broadcasting a man's death as a warning to the world. He is now being handed rifles, a chair and a legal pathway to use them against a prisoner who cannot stand.
Anyone who thinks that Trump is going to be comfortable stopping at Hasan, has not listened to those who have worked closest with him.
The only difference between a public execution and a private one is the number of witnesses.
A firing squad is a capability before it is a sentence. Once a government has built the chair, qualified the shooters, written the protocol and fired on one man, it owns that capability for good. It will not retire with Hasan. South Carolina shot three men in 2025. In one of those executions, an outside pathologist who reviewed the state's autopsy found the bullets largely missed the man's heart. Meaning, he bled out for an extended period of time. Idaho spent more than $1.2 million building a firing squad it has not used. Those who think this is an inexpensive, certain, or quick enterprise are sorely mistaken. The federal government is about to join the blunders that have always plagued the firing squad, and human executions in general for that matter. Who deserves to die and who deserves to live? The rifles at Fort Hood will not go back to the armory when it is over. They will be cleaned, racked and kept ready for whoever is next.
Hasan is where that question begins. He is not where it ends.
I do not want this president to have the power to shoot an unarmed person. Not Hasan. Not a drug dealer. Not a protester. Not anyone. Unchecked power does not know the difference between them. It only knows the hand that holds it. A man who once asked about shooting Americans in the legs is about to find out what it feels like to give the command for a volley.
Once a soldier learns to fire on a bound prisoner on command, the distance to the next bound prisoner gets shorter.
I think of the soldiers who may be ordered to take part. They entered an institution that asks them to protect human life, sometimes at terrible cost. They should not have to pretend that shooting a restrained man is another administrative duty. Once a soldier learns to fire on a bound prisoner on command, the distance to the next bound prisoner gets shorter. Once a president learns he can order it, the list of people he might order it for gets longer.
I do not want the families of the Fort Hood victims forgotten. Their loss deserves more than a government telling them that another death settles the account. One murder will never offset another murder.
Besides, isn't Donald Trump the last person on earth you would trust with a rifle?
Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood
Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood is a death row spiritual advisor who has accompanied fourteen people to their executions, including the first and eighth nitrogen executions in the United States. Rolling Stone has called him "the last face death row inmates see" and made him the subject of the Rolling Stone Films documentary The Spiritual Advisor. He is the founder of the Execution Intervention Project and author of The Lie of the Clean Kill: Idaho, the Firing Squad, and the Allure of the Bullet, free at firingsquads.org.
Before his nitrogen execution last year, Anthony Boyd wanted to figure out a way to help people understand the horror he was about to experience. He told me to watch his legs. When he couldn't go any further, he was going to lift up his legs one final time. Once and for all, he wanted to settle that nitrogen executions were neither quick nor humane.
The State of Alabama controlled the gas, the mask, the restraints, the room. Boyd had nothing left to control but himself... his legs.
At approximately 5:57 p.m., the nitrogen began flowing. Boyd clenched his fist. He raised his head. Then he lifted his legs several inches, exactly as he had promised me. By my watch, he fought for his life for at least sixteen minutes, maybe even closer to nineteen depending on when the gas actually entered the mask. He was not pronounced dead until 6:33 p.m. Afterward, officials had the audacity to call his movements involuntary and insignificant. They all wanted to talk about the justice that was just done. I knew better. The lies and misdirections of government are always endless.
The cameras became the problem... not the killing itself. This should send chills down the spine of our country.
The primary thing that these executions produce is more horror.
As a spiritual advisor to men on death row throughout the nation, I have witnessed fourteen executions in five states, which is more than any other spiritual leader in the nation. Repeatedly, I have watched a condemned man's body tell the witnesses what the official statement would later explain away. I know what the government's descriptions and language of procedure can conceal.
I carry that knowledge into what is coming at Fort Hood. On December 3, the United States Army intends to execute Nidal Hasan by firing squad. President Donald Trump approved the death sentence in early October. It will be the first firing squad carried out under federal authority since the Army shot Private Eddie Slovik for desertion in a French courtyard in January 1945. The country went 81 years without doing this. Of course, it is Trump who is bringing it back.
Don't think for a second I am going to skip the horrors of Nidal Hasan's actions. Indeed, Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. The people he killed had families and futures. The survivors have carried 17 years of consequences. Their suffering must never become an afterthought. Opposing this execution does not require anyone to shrink the horror of what came before it. But those deaths do not make the killing of Hasan an automatic act of justice. They also do not lift the moral responsibility from the president who has authorized the shooting.
Who deserves to die and who deserves to live? The rifles at Fort Hood will not go back to the armory when it is over. They will be cleaned, racked and kept ready for whoever is next.
The Army's own announcement lays out the chain. The president alone can approve a military prisoner's death sentence. Trump exercised that authority. He does not have to pull the trigger to own what happens when the rifles are raised. Other people will fire. The directive to shoot an unarmed paralyzed man will come straight from the Oval Office.
Of course, if the horror wasn't horrific enough. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth proposed livestreaming the execution so the world could watch America kill Hasan. Trump argued that streaming it might be a strong deterrent. On October 15, after widespread criticism from all sides of the political spectrum, Trump backed down. Hasan would be shot to death behind closed doors. He seems to glow each time he makes such a pronouncement.
So, the cameras became the problem... not the killing itself.
This should send chills down the spine of our country. The government considered turning a human death into a demonstration of national power. When the demonstration met resistance, the administration dropped the audience while keeping the shooting. The only difference between a public execution and a private one is the number of witnesses.
Consider whose hand is on the order. This is a president whose own defense secretary, Mark Esper, wrote that during the protests of 2020 Trump asked whether the people in the streets could simply be shot in the legs. This is a president who entertained broadcasting a man's death as a warning to the world. He is now being handed rifles, a chair and a legal pathway to use them against a prisoner who cannot stand.
Anyone who thinks that Trump is going to be comfortable stopping at Hasan, has not listened to those who have worked closest with him.
The only difference between a public execution and a private one is the number of witnesses.
A firing squad is a capability before it is a sentence. Once a government has built the chair, qualified the shooters, written the protocol and fired on one man, it owns that capability for good. It will not retire with Hasan. South Carolina shot three men in 2025. In one of those executions, an outside pathologist who reviewed the state's autopsy found the bullets largely missed the man's heart. Meaning, he bled out for an extended period of time. Idaho spent more than $1.2 million building a firing squad it has not used. Those who think this is an inexpensive, certain, or quick enterprise are sorely mistaken. The federal government is about to join the blunders that have always plagued the firing squad, and human executions in general for that matter. Who deserves to die and who deserves to live? The rifles at Fort Hood will not go back to the armory when it is over. They will be cleaned, racked and kept ready for whoever is next.
Hasan is where that question begins. He is not where it ends.
I do not want this president to have the power to shoot an unarmed person. Not Hasan. Not a drug dealer. Not a protester. Not anyone. Unchecked power does not know the difference between them. It only knows the hand that holds it. A man who once asked about shooting Americans in the legs is about to find out what it feels like to give the command for a volley.
Once a soldier learns to fire on a bound prisoner on command, the distance to the next bound prisoner gets shorter.
I think of the soldiers who may be ordered to take part. They entered an institution that asks them to protect human life, sometimes at terrible cost. They should not have to pretend that shooting a restrained man is another administrative duty. Once a soldier learns to fire on a bound prisoner on command, the distance to the next bound prisoner gets shorter. Once a president learns he can order it, the list of people he might order it for gets longer.
I do not want the families of the Fort Hood victims forgotten. Their loss deserves more than a government telling them that another death settles the account. One murder will never offset another murder.
Besides, isn't Donald Trump the last person on earth you would trust with a rifle?
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.
To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
News & Opinion
Trending
Common Dreams, Inc. Founded 1997. Registered 501(c3) Non-Profit
Privacy Policy