Death penalty in the US military: Trump approves first military execution in over 60 years

dpa | US President Donald Trump has approved the execution of a former army psychiatrist who carried out a massacre at a military base in 2009, according to the Pentagon. If Nidal Hasan is actually executed, according to US media, it would be the first military execution in the USA in more than 60 years. The then army major killed 13 people and injured 32 at the Fort Hood military base in Texas.

The now 56-year-old should be executed “by a firing squad of the US Army,” wrote Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell on Platform US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended the execution and Trump approved it. The place and time have not yet been determined.

Trump approved the execution a few days after an execution attempt failed in the US state of Tennessee: Christa Pike, who was convicted of murder, survived two lethal injections and has been in critical condition ever since. The case reignited the debate about the death penalty.

According to the New York Times, US military personnel can only be executed if the president confirms the death sentence. The last time the US military executed an army member was in 1961, who had been sentenced to death for the rape and attempted murder of an eleven-year-old during his deployment in Austria.

According to US military guidelines, Hasan's execution must take place no later than 150 days after the president's approval, but no earlier than 60 days, wrote ABC News. But the execution could still be stopped, wrote the New York Times, citing a similar case from 2008.

If the sentence is carried out, according to US media, it would also be the first execution at the federal level since January 2021. At that time, Trump had 13 prisoners executed in the last weeks of his first term in office.

In November 2009, Hasan, an Army psychiatrist at the Fort Hood base, opened fire, killing 12 soldiers and a civilian and wounding dozens of people before he himself was shot and arrested.

According to the New York Times, Hasan said he carried out the attack in the name of jihad, the so-called holy war. He called the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq illegal. The attack occurred at the height of the anti-terror struggle after September 11, 2001. According to US media, Hasan was born in the USA to Palestinian parents and had become increasingly radicalized before the attack.

He was sentenced to death for his crime. He showed no remorse and expressed the wish that he had died in the attack himself in order to be considered a martyr. According to US media, Hasan is one of four death row prisoners in the military justice system.