US President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting in Texas.
The Pentagon announced the decision on Monday, saying Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had recommended that Hasan be executed by a US Army firing squad, with Trump approving the recommendation. The Secretary of the Army will determine the date and location of the execution.
If carried out, the execution will be the first by the US military since 1961, making Hasan’s case one of the rare instances in which the American military has enforced a death sentence in recent decades.
Hasan was sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013 after being convicted over the November 5, 2009 attack at Fort Hood, one of the largest US military installations in Texas.
He opened fire at a medical facility where soldiers were receiving treatment and preparing for deployments. Thirteen people were killed, while 32 others were wounded in the attack.
Hasan, who was an Army psychiatrist, chose to defend himself during the military trial. He called no witnesses and did not dispute that he carried out the shooting, while arguing that his actions were linked to his opposition to US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Prosecutors also presented evidence that Hasan had communicated online with Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical cleric who was later killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.
The Pentagon’s announcement means the execution process can now move forward, although Hasan may still pursue legal challenges that could delay the sentence. Military death sentences remain extremely rare, with the US military having carried out no execution since 1961.
