First U.S. military firing squad execution since 1945
The U.S. Army has scheduled Nidal Hasan’s execution for December 3 at 1 p.m. CST at Fort Hood, Texas. Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle said in a statement late Tuesday that the execution would take place at Fort Hood. Defense Department spokesman Sean Parnell said Monday that President Donald Trump had approved Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recommendation that Hasan’s sentence be carried out by firing squad.
Hasan, now 56, was convicted in August 2013 by a general court-martial panel of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. The convictions stemmed from a shooting at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Processing Center on November 5, 2009, that killed 12 U.S. soldiers and one civilian employee.
The firing squad method has not been used by the U.S. military since the execution of Pvt. Eddie Slovik, a convicted deserter, in early 1945. The last U.S. military execution of any kind was that of Pvt. John A. Bennett in April 1961.
Hasan was a Virginia-born former U.S. Army psychiatrist. During the shooting, he shouted “Allahu akbar,” which is Arabic for “God is great.” He never denied being the shooter. During his court-martial trial, Hasan said the shooting was in defense of the Taliban leadership in the United States’ war with Islam. At the time of the shooting, the United States was engaged in armed conflict with the Taliban in Afghanistan as part of Washington’s Global War on Terrorism.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in a statement Monday that Hasan “is a radical Islamist terrorist who carried out an attack in Texas that killed and injured dozens of Americans.” “He deserves to be executed for his crimes,” Cruz said, applauding Trump and Hegseth for choosing the firing squad method.
Three other people are on military death row alongside Hasan at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.