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Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan to be executed by firing squad, Pentagon says
CBS News • • nation
Key Points:
- The Trump administration has approved the execution of former Army Maj. Nidal Hasan by firing squad for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that killed 13 people, as announced by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended the firing squad method, which President Trump approved, with the Secretary of the Army to set the execution's time and place.
- Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted in 2013 for murdering 13 people and injuring over 30 in the shooting, and he claimed his actions were to protect Islamic insurgents from U.S. forces.
- This execution would be the first military execution of an American service member since 1961 and a rare use of a firing squad, a method recently reconsidered by the federal government for death penalty cases.
- Hasan's case involved a lengthy appeals process and unusual legal dynamics, including Hasan representing himself and conflicts with his court-appointed standby attorneys who believed he sought the death penalty intentionally.
