President Donald Trump approved a military firing squad for the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people during the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood.
Trump agreed to the execution method following a recommendation by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to an X post shared by chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell on Monday, October 5.
“The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution,” Parnell wrote. “Judgement day for Hasan has finally come.”
At Fort Hood, a U.S. Army base in Texas, in 2009, Hasan entered a medical building with a laser-sighted firearm and shouted, “Allahu akbar” before shooting several soldiers, according to the Associated Press.
In addition to killing 13 people, 32 others were injured, Parnell said on X.
Hasan, who is Muslim, represented himself at trial and contended he carried out the shooting to prevent soldiers from being sent to Afghanistan and killing other Muslims, per the AP. He told a jury that he “switched sides.”
Hasan is one of four people on military death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The other individuals are Ronald Gray, Hasan Akbar and Timothy Hennis.
A military execution hasn’t occurred in more than 65 years, since the execution of U.S. Army Pvt. John A. Bennett, who was convicted of rape and attempted murder in connection with an 11-year-old girl, the center reports. Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on April 13, 1961.
The last time an Army soldier faced a firing squad execution was during the end of World War II, when Pvt. Eddie Slovik was executed on January 31, 1945, according to CNN.
Slovik was convicted of desertion and sentenced to death.
A presidential approval for a military death sentence is the first step needed to begin the process, according to an article published in Army Lawyer. It also provides Hasan the opportunity to challenge his imprisonment by filing a petition of habeas corpus.
Following the president’s approval, the execution date is to be scheduled within 60 to 150 days, the article reports.
In response to a request for comment, the White House referred Us to the Department of War, which had no comment to provide outside of Parnell’s X post.
In Parnell’s post, he described Hasan as a terrorist and jihadist.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Hasan has currently retained legal counsel.
