Donald Trump approved execution by firing squad for Nidal Hasan, convicted of the 2009 Fort Hood attack. The Pentagon announced the decision after a recommendation from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The Army secretary must set the time and place. The approval advances a military death sentence imposed in 2013, in a system whose last execution was in 1961.
US President Donald Trump approved execution by firing squad for Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist convicted over the Fort Hood mass shooting. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the decision on Monday after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended it. The Army secretary will determine the time and place of the execution.[1], [2]
Hasan attacked a medical facility at Fort Hood, a US Army base, in 2009. The shooting killed 13 people and wounded 32. He was serving as an Army psychiatrist at the time. Those killed included 12 serving soldiers and one retired soldier.[1]
Police shot Hasan during the attack, leaving him partially paralysed. A military court convicted him and sentenced him to death in 2013. Presidential approval is required before a military death sentence can be carried out; appellate review and a final judgment also form part of that process.[1]
The US military last carried out an execution by hanging in 1961. Its last firing-squad execution dates to 1945, during the Second World War. Trump added firing squads, electrocution and gas to military execution options in April. The new approval therefore concerns a method unused by the military for decades. No fixed execution date accompanied the Pentagon’s announcement.[1]
