By : Akanksha
Nidal Hasan, the former US Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas in a 2009 shooting spree , has been ordered to be executed by firing squad by President Donald Trump.
Sean Parnell, spokesperson for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, took over X and noted that Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar ” — translating to “God is greatest” — during the attack.
The Secretary of the Army will decide the time and the place of the execution. “Judgement day for Hasan has finally come,” he added.
In August 2013, a military jury sentenced Hasan to death after finding him guilty of 13 counts of attempted premeditated murder and 32 counts of premeditated murder for opening fire with a laser-sighted handgun in a medical facility at the extensive central Texas military base.
The attack killed 12 unarmed active-duty soldiers and a retired serviceman, and wounded 32 others.
The shooting came weeks before Hasan was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan. The Police shot and arrested him at the scene, leaving him and permanently confined to a wheelchair.
During his court-martial, he said that the shooting was an effort to stop the soldiers from going to Afghanistan and killing his fellow Muslims, and made almost no effort to defend himself.
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In 2021, President Biden’s Justice Department imposed a moratorium on federal executions. Trump ordered the department to lift it and again pursue the death penalty after he returned to office in January 2025.
The administration also added a firing squad as an authorized method of execution, along with gas asphyxiation and electrocution.
Trump’s approval came days after Tennessee's failed attempt to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection. She has since regained consciousness and is off life support in the hospital, though she remains in critical care.
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When questioned about the execution, Trump told reporters, “It shouldn’t be very difficult.”
Military executions are extremely rare in the US and can only be approved by the president under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
If the order is carried out, Hasan will be the first member of the US military to be executed since 1961.
(Rh/APC)