Hasan firing squad would be first military execution since 1961

Death penalty abolitionists swiftly rebuked President Donald Trump on Monday for approving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recommendation that Nidal Hasan, the former U.S. Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, be executed by firing squad. “There is nothing Donald Trump loves more than the power to kill,” Death Penalty Action co-founder Abraham Bonowitz told UPI in an emailed statement, adding that during his first term, Trump oversaw more executions than any president since the Roosevelt administration, which ended with Franklin Roosevelt’s death in April 1945. “Truly, this is just another distraction and a ploy to stem his record-low approval ratings,” Bonowitz said. Death Penalty Action said the group will oppose military executions as it has led protests opposing other federal executions.

The Pentagon’s announcement Monday makes Hasan’s scheduled execution the first U.S. military execution in more than 60 years. Defense Department spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that Trump approved Hegseth’s recommendation of the form of execution. “Judgement day for Hasan has finally come,” Parnell said. The date and location of the execution will be set by Secretary of the Army Adam Telle, Parnell said. Hegseth’s only online response to the announcement was the single word: “Justice.”

Hasan, 56, was sentenced to death in August 2013 by a general court-martial panel after being convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. The convictions stemmed from a Nov. 5, 2009, shooting at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Processing Center that killed 12 U.S. soldiers and one civilian employee.

The Virginia-born son of Palestinian immigrants, Hasan never denied being the shooter during his court-martial trial, according to UPI. He said during the proceedings that he was defending Taliban leadership in what he said was the United States’ war with Islam. The United States was then engaged in armed conflict with the Taliban in Afghanistan, a conflict that was part of what the U.S. military called the Global War on Terrorism. During the shooting, Hasan shouted “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.”

The last U.S. military execution occurred on April 13, 1961, when Pvt. John A. Bennett was hanged after being convicted of rape and attempted murder.