WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has approved the firing squad execution of former Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, the Pentagon announced on Monday.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed the approval in a post on X after Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth recommended the method. Parnell assigned the Army secretary responsibility for scheduling the execution.
“The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution,” he wrote.
If carried out, the execution would be the US military’s first since 1961. The announcement gave no date or location for carrying out the sentence.
Presidential approval does not rule out further court proceedings. A May article in the Army Lawyer explains that a prisoner can challenge a conviction in federal court. Its authors, Majors Alexandria J. Altimas and Allyson J. Montgomery, teach at the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Centre and School.
A prisoner can seek an order halting execution while the court considers alleged violations of constitutional rights. The authors explained that a judge’s stay can prevent an execution until those proceedings conclude.
A military panel sentenced Hasan to death on August 28, 2013. His convictions covered premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. The sentence included dismissal from the Army and forfeiture of pay and allowances.
Hasan represented himself at trial, called no witnesses and gave no testimony. He did not attempt to deny the charges, while court-appointed defence lawyers expressed concern that he was seeking execution. He chose not to deliver a closing argument before the panel decided his punishment.
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During the trial, the court heard that Hasan opposed US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It heard that he had communicated online with an alleged Al-Qaeda figure who later died in a US drone strike in Yemen.
Hasan opened fire on November 5, 2009, at a medical facility used by soldiers preparing for deployment to those combat zones. Twelve of those killed and 30 of the wounded were soldiers.
A civilian police officer responding to the attack shot Hasan and left him partially paralysed.
(With additional input from AFP)
