For the first time since 1945, a serviceman will be executed by firing squad in the USA. Trump approved this punishment for the Fort Hood shooter

US President Donald Trump ordered the execution of a former US Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood military base (Texas) in 2009, writes BBC.

According to Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, Nidal Malik Hasan will be executed by firing squad. If this sentence is carried out, it will be the first military execution by firing squad since the end of World War II.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced on X that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth proposed the execution by firing squad, and Donald Trump approved the proposal.

The time and place of the execution will be determined by the Secretary of Defense, Parnell clarified, adding: "Hasan's day of reckoning has finally arrived."

Death penalties in the armed forces are a rare occurrence, and the procedure for carrying out such a death sentence differs from similar procedures at the state level.

According to US law, the execution of a death sentence handed down to a serviceman requires the sanction of the US President.

As emphasized in a statement by the Death Penalty Information Center, if Hasan's death sentence is carried out, it will be the first execution in the US armed forces since 1961. The organization clarifies that the 1961 execution was carried out by hanging.

The last known case of an execution carried out by a military firing squad in the US was a firing squad execution in November 1945.

Fort Hood Shooting

Military psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan shot dead 13 unarmed servicemen and wounded 32 others at Fort Hood base in Texas in 2009. The attack occurred in a crowded medical facility where servicemen preparing for deployment to a combat zone were awaiting medical examinations and vaccinations. This happened a few weeks before Hasan (now 56 years old) and his colleagues were due to deploy to Afghanistan.

Hasan, who professes Islam, stated in court that he wanted to protect his co-religionists and attacked his colleagues so they would not be sent to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan.

During the attack, he shouted "Allahu Akbar".

Hasan himself was wounded by police during his arrest. As a result of the injury, he remained partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.

The Major never denied that he was the one who carried out the Fort Hood shooting.

In 2013, a military tribunal found Hasan guilty on all 45 counts and sentenced the Major to death by lethal injection.

Currently, Hasan is one of four inmates sentenced to death in the US military justice system.

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