By Sarah Rich
Correspondent
Editor's note: Trump said that the government no longer plans to live-stream the execution, but Hasan is still set to be executed by firing squad, according to NBC News.
Nidal Hasan, former U.S. Army psychiatrist, is to be executed by firing squad on Dec. 3, it being the first U.S. military execution in over 60 years and the first time a firing squad has been used since World War II, according to NPR.
The Army has been planning to bring back military executions, issuing “Operation Resolute Justice” in February. The military has not executed a service member since 1961, when Pvt. John Bennet was hanged after he was convicted for rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl in Austria, ABC News reported.
Hasan was convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of 13 people, 12 being soldiers and the other a civilian, at the Fort Hood military base in Texas. The mass shooting, which specifically took place at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, also wounded 32 other people. Hasan was sent to a military detention center at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas to sit on death row, only one of four death row inmates in the Army justice system, ABC News reported.
As reported by The Washington Post, Hasan was an Army major and psychiatrist. Hasan is Muslim and was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan before the shooting occurred, but was against the deployment. When on trial, Hasan represented himself, and said in his opening statement that he decided to “switch sides” on the “war” the United States had against the Islamic religion.
A letter Hasan wrote in 2017 reveals more of what his motive was for the mass shooting. As quoted from The Hill, the letter stated, “I considered those who were trying to help the U.S. undermine the Taliban’s attempt to establish Sharia (God’s) Law as the supreme law of the land and replace it with something else like a democracy that doesn’t rule by God’s law the enemies of God, and thus worthy of fighting/killing.”
Pete Hegseth, head of the Department of Defense, specifically recommended Hasan be put to death by firing squad, and it was approved by President Donald Trump, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
“I am 100 percent committed to ensuring the death penalty is carried out for Nidal Hasan,” Hegseth said on Sept. 23 to The Hill, “This savage terrorist deserves the harshest lawful punishment for his 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood. The victims and survivors deserve justice without delays.”
Only earlier this year did federal executions by firing squads be made an option again by the Justice Department, as directed by President Trump, NPR reported. Seven states have execution by firing squad now available, it being the highest number of states to ever allow it.
An undisclosed official within the Defense Department told reporters from BBC that the execution would be livestreamed. The U.N. human rights office said livestreaming the incident would be “tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture.”
Multiple government officials have also spoken out against the idea of the execution being livestreamed, including Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, who told CNN Anchor Erin Burnett, that it is “disgusting” to plan to livestream Hasan’s execution. Murphy also reportedly asked Burnett, “What is he mimicking? ISIS executions?” The remarks can be found on Brunett’s Instagram page.
Although it is not currently known for certain why the Department of Defense is choosing to execute Hasan by firing squad, NPR was reportedly told by death penalty experts that one possible reason could be due to the failed lethal injections of Christa Pike in Tennessee.
Lethal injection is the more common type of execution, though it has a definite fail rate. Fordham Law School Professor Deborah Denno believes the timing of the Pentagon’s announcement of Hasan’s execution being carried out by firing squad is not a coincidence, stating how Pike’s case is far from the only failed lethal injection within recent years, according to NPR.
The Justice Department said in April of this year that they are looking to expand execution methods for federal death sentences, including the electric chair and firing squad methods, as reported by the Washington Post.
