Trump approves death by firing squad for 2009 Fort Hood massacre convict

President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.

Politico, citing the Associated Press, reports that the U.S. military has not carried out the death penalty since 1961. The Army secretary will decide the time and place, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote on X.

“Judgement day for Hasan has finally come,” Parnell wrote.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, opened fire at a medical building where soldiers were getting checkups. Thirteen people were killed and more than 30 injured.

Trump’s approval triggers procedural steps, but Hasan could put them on hold, potentially for years, with a habeas corpus appeal in the civilian federal court system.

Four men, including Hasan, are on the military’s death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

The approval comes days after a failed attempt to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection led Tennessee’s governor to halt further executions this year. Asked whether it would lead him to seek changes, Trump said it was “an interesting situation.”

“It shouldn’t be very difficult,” Trump said of carrying out lethal injections.