ROMA (ITALPRESS) – Seventeen years after the Fort Hood massacre, U.S. military justice is preparing to reopen a pending chapter for over six decades. President Donald Trump approved the execution by platoon of the U.S. Army of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former military major and psychiatrist sentenced to death for the attack on 5 November 2009, in which 13 people and 32 others were killed.
The decision was announced by Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell: “The Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended, and President Donald J. Trump has approved, death by firing squad of the U.S. Army.” Hegseth has entrusted his reaction to one word: “Justice”.
Hasan opened fire in the Texas-based Soldier Readiness Processing Center, then called Fort Hood, against military largely engaged in operational deployment procedures. A court-martial recognized him in 2013 guilty of 13 premeditated murders and 32 attempted premeditated murders, inflicting his death penalty. His appeal lodged at the Supreme Court, which on 31 March 2025 rejected the petition for certiorari. Presidential authorisation now puts a turning point in a proceeding which has remained in the limbo of the military capital punishment for years.
“The Secretary of the Army will establish the time and place of execution,” said Parnell. According to the discipline illustrated by the Army Lawyer, the date must fall between 60 and 150 days from presidential approval, remaining the possibility of federal appeals in habeas corpus and any judicial suspension.
If carried out, it would be the first execution of the US Armed Forces since 1961 and the first of the Army by platoon since 1945: a passage of strong institutional value, in which military justice, presidential authority and the renewed address of the U.S. administration on the capital punishment converge.
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(ITALPRESS).
