From the HERE City National Desk
The Army has scheduled the execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people in the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, for Dec. 3.
Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle said Hasan will be executed by firing squad at Fort Hood at 1 p.m. Central time, returning him to the site of the attack. A memo Telle shared said President Donald Trump approved the execution on Oct. 2. The commandant of the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks will serve as execution officer.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced Monday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had recommended, and Trump had approved, death by Army firing squad.
If carried out, it would be the first execution by the U.S. military since 1961, when the Army hanged Pvt. John Bennett at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. It would also be the first Army firing squad execution since 1945, when Pvt. Eddie Slovik was executed in France for desertion during World War II.
On Nov. 5, 2009, Hasan opened fire at a readiness processing center at Fort Hood, killing 13 people and wounding 32. Those targeted were unarmed soldiers preparing to deploy. Hasan, now 56, was paralyzed from the chest down when police returned fire.
A military jury convicted him in August 2013 and recommended a death sentence. He has been on death row at Fort Leavenworth since. Families of those killed were notified before the announcement.
