First military firing squad since 1945: Fort Hood shooter’s execution set for Dec. 3

Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist who fatally shot 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, is scheduled to face an Army firing squad there on Dec. 3.

Acting Army Secretary Adam R. Telle announced the date Tuesday after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recommendation and President Trump’s formal approval.

The execution will be at 10 a.m. — “which is when he did it” — and “it’s going to be soldiers with rifles,” Mr. Hegseth said. The Defense Department said it will be livestreamed.

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It would be the first military firing squad execution since Army Pvt. Eddie Slovik was shot for desertion in France on Jan. 31, 1945, and the first military execution of any kind since Army Pvt. John A. Bennett was hanged in 1961.

The U.S. military has executed at least 135 of its own over 250 years, though the true total is almost surely higher. George Washington approved the execution of Thomas Hickey, convicted of mutiny and sedition, and Gen. Winfield Scott ordered about 50 members of the St. Patrick’s Battalion hanged for desertion.

Hasan can still seek appellate review in civilian federal courts, which the Death Penalty Information Center said could indefinitely delay the execution.

Read more:

• Fort Hood shooter faces military execution, joining infamous list of traitors, rapists, killers

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