US President Donald Trump has approved the execution of Nidal Hasan, the former US Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people during the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood in Texas. The Pentagon said Hasan will be executed by an Army firing squad, marking the first US military execution since 1961.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended the firing squad execution and Trump approved it. The Secretary of the Army will determine the time and location of the execution.
Hasan was sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013 after being convicted of the mass shooting. During his trial, he represented himself and did not call witnesses or testify. His court appointed defense lawyers had previously expressed concerns that Hasan appeared to be seeking execution.
The attack happened on November 5, 2009, at a medical facility inside Fort Hood, a major US military installation that served as a staging location for troops preparing for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Hasan opened fire, killing 13 people and injuring more than 30 others.
Most of those killed and wounded were US soldiers. Hasan was eventually shot by a civilian police officer who responded to the attack, leaving him partially paralyzed.
Evidence presented during the military trial showed that Hasan had expressed opposition to US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prosecutors also presented evidence concerning his online communications with an alleged Al Qaeda figure.
Mass shootings remain a serious issue in the United States, but attacks at military installations are comparatively uncommon. Several other incidents have occurred in recent years, including shootings at military facilities in Georgia, Hawaii and Florida.
Hasan’s approved execution is therefore significant not only because of the scale of the Fort Hood attack, but also because it represents a rare use of military capital punishment in the United States.
