U.S. President Donald Trump has approved the execution by U.S. Army firing squad of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting in Texas that killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others.
The announcement was made Monday by the Pentagon, confirming that Trump endorsed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recommendation to carry out the capital sentence.Under the authorization, the Secretary of the Army will determine the date and location of the execution.
If carried out, Hasan’s execution will mark the first time the U.S. military has executed a service member in over sixty years. It will also mark the first military execution by firing squad since the end of World War II.
Furthermore, prosecutors introduced evidence showing that Hasan had communicated online with Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical cleric later killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen.
The Pentagon’s announcement authorizes the military to proceed with the execution protocol, though Hasan may still pursue remaining legal challenges that could delay the sentence. Given that the U.S. military has not carried out a death sentence since 1961, military executions remain exceedingly rare.
Backstory..
A military tribunal convicted Hasan in 2013 for the November 5, 2009 attack at Fort Hood, one of the largest U.S. military installations in Texas—sentencing him to death for the assault.
During the Fort Hood shooting, Hasan opened fire inside a medical processing facility where service members were receiving health checks and preparing for deployment, leaving 13 people dead and 32 injured.
During his court-martial, the former Army psychiatrist represented himself, offering no defense witnesses and making no attempt to deny his role in the shooting. Instead, he cited his opposition to U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as the motivation for his actions.
He stated that he thought he was defending Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
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