Washington: Nidal Hasan, the man convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, will be executed by firing squad on Dec. 3, the acting secretary of the US Army said.
In a post on social media, acting Secretary Adam Telle said the execution of Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan will take place at Fort Hood.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said Monday that President Donald Trump had approved the execution of Hasan. The US military has not carried out the death penalty since 1961.
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, entered a medical building where soldiers were getting medical checkups and shouted 'Allahu akbar' before firing at them, which is the Arabic equivalent of 'God is great!'. He then suddenly opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun. Thirteen people were killed, and more than 30 were injured.
After the shooting and trials on November 7, 2009, while Hasan was conversing, he still hesitated to talk to the law enforcement officials. On November 12 and December 2, Hassan was charged with premeditated murder under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, thus making being conferred for the death penalty.
Hassan reportedly said that the murders were done to prevent the soldiers from going to Afghanistan and killing fellow muslims. He made no effort to defend himself at trial. He said in court that the evidence would reveal that he was the shooter and described himself as a soldier who had ‘switched sides’.
According to the New York post's report it says that 'the Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution' the Pentagon spokesman added. 'Judgement day for Hasan has finally come.'
Trump's approval triggered a series of procedural steps toward carrying out the execution, but Hasan could put them on hold, potentially for years, with a habeas corpus appeal in the civilian federal court system, according to an article published in May in the magazine Army Lawyer.
(With agency inputs from PTI)
