NEWS
Trump Approves Firing-Squad Execution of Fort Hood Shooter, Nidal Hasan
United States President, Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of former US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the convicted Fort Hood shooter responsible for one of the deadliest attacks on a US military installation.
The decision was announced on Monday by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, who said Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had recommended the death-by-firing-squad sentence and that President Trump had approved the recommendation.
Parnell said the Secretary of the Army would now determine the time and location for the execution, setting in motion the military process required to carry out the death sentence.
Hasan was convicted by a military jury in 2013 following the November 5, 2009, mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. He was found guilty of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.
The attack occurred at a military facility where soldiers were undergoing processing ahead of deployment. Hasan opened fire, killing 13 people and leaving 32 others wounded in the devastating incident.
At the time of the shooting, Hasan was serving as an Army psychiatrist. His military trial ended with a death sentence, placing him on the US military’s death row.
More than a decade after the conviction, Trump’s approval has now cleared a major hurdle toward Hasan’s execution.
However, an exact execution date has yet to be announced, with the Army Secretary expected to determine when and where the sentence will be carried out.
The planned execution is also expected to carry historic significance for the US military. If carried out, Hasan would become the first person executed by the US military since 1961, when the military last carried out an execution.
The case remains one of the most consequential acts of violence against US service members in the modern history of the American military, and Hasan’s pending execution would bring renewed attention to the Fort Hood attack and its lasting impact on the victims, their families and the
US armed forces.
