Former US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, is set to be executed by firing squad after President Donald Trump approved the punishment for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting in Texas.
The Pentagon said Trump approved the execution following a recommendation from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The Secretary of the Army will determine the date and location of the execution.
If carried out, Hasan’s execution would mark the first time the US military has executed a service member since 1961. It would also be the first military firing-squad execution since World War II.
Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted by a military jury in 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. He was sentenced to death for the November 2009 attack at Fort Hood, where he opened fire at a military medical facility.
The shooting left 13 people dead and 32 others wounded. Hasan acknowledged during his trial that he carried out the attack, arguing that he wanted to prevent US troops from being deployed to Afghanistan and harming fellow Muslims.
The Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, Sean Parnell, announced the decision on Monday, October 5.
“The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution,” Parnell said, adding: “Judgment day for Hasan has finally come.”
Hasan has exhausted his regular appeals, although legal avenues could still delay the execution.
The decision comes shortly after a failed lethal-injection execution in Tennessee, where death-row inmate Christa Pike survived the procedure. The incident has renewed debate in the US over execution methods.
