The Trump administration has approved the execution of former Army Maj. Nidal Hasan by firing squad, more than 16 years after he killed 13 people and injured more than 30 others at Fort Hood.
Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said the plan was recommended by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and approved by President Donald Trump. The Secretary of the Army will decide when and where the execution takes place.
“Judgement day for Hasan has finally come,” Mr Parnell said in a social media post.
Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted of murdering 13 people at a 2013 court martial and sentenced to death. He acknowledged responsibility for the shooting, saying he had opened fire on fellow service members in an effort to protect Islamic insurgents from US military forces.
The case could result in the first execution of an American service member by the military since 1961, when a soldier was hanged for raping and attempting to murder an 11-year-old girl.
It would also be an unusual use of the firing squad. The method was used three times in South Carolina last year, marking the first firing squad executions in the US since 2010.
Federal executions of civilians are typically carried out by lethal injection, although the Justice Department said earlier this year that officials should consider alternatives including firing squads, electrocution and lethal gas.
Hasan’s execution follows a lengthy appeals process. He represented himself at trial and clashed with his court-appointed standby lawyers, who expressed concern that he was deliberately seeking the death penalty.
He asked the Supreme Court in 2024 to review his case, arguing that a judge had violated his right to a public trial by excluding the public while discussing some of his issues with the lawyers. The court declined to hear the case last year.
