Nidal Hasan was sentenced to death in August 2013. He was found guilty of the massacre at the Fort Hood army base in Texas in 2009. 13 people were killed and 31 were injured. According to the verdict, the execution would take place by means of a poison injection.
But on October 6 of this year, President Donald Trump announced that he approved Hasan to be arquebused instead. Late on Monday evening, Defense Minister Pete Hegseth announced that the execution will take place in public, in that it will be broadcast live.
The announcement that the execution will take place in public has attracted strong criticism.
Eugene R Fidell, a specialist in military law and a lecturer at Yale Law School, told the BBC it was an "unfortunate decision". - Broadcasting an execution live is something that belongs in the Middle Ages. In a sense, we as a society have come so far away from it – at least I thought so until today, says Fidell.
Former Major Nidal Hasan was stationed in Iraq in 2011, where he participated in combat. He was described by the commander at Fort Hood as depressed and was being investigated for post-traumatic stress symptoms, PTSD, at the time of the massacre.
During the investigation, he repeatedly wanted to plead guilty and he wanted to defend himself. He was still assigned a lawyer, as US law says he must be given the opportunity to convince the jury of his guilt. The lawyer was consistently critical of how the process went. Hasan did not want to call any witnesses.
Nidal Hasan was 42 years old when the death sentence was handed down. When he is now to be executed, it is the first military execution in over 60 years and the first public execution in almost a century, according to the AP. It is also the first time that the federal government has used arquebusing as a method of execution.
- Broadcasting the execution live is unprecedented in modern times, John Mills, a lawyer who works with death row inmates, told the AP.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's main argument for showing the arquebus in public is that "people need to understand that there are serious consequences for this kind of thing".
Deborah Denno, an expert on the death penalty and law professor at Fordham University, told the AP that "live streaming of an execution could make the process much more transparent." - It would inform the public about everything that the death penalty entails. That could be valuable now, as the botched execution of Christa Pike has raised new questions about how criminal suspects are executed for their crimes.
It was on November 5, 2009 that Hasan opened fire on the military care facility where he worked as a psychiatrist. Some time before, he had been told that he would be sent to Afghanistan for duty, something he feared, according to his cousin who spoke to Reuters. Hasan, whose parents emigrated to the United States from a town outside Jerusalem, had suffered a lot of harassment because of his Middle Eastern background, according to his relatives. He was born in the United States and converted to Christianity while growing up.
After serving in Iraq, he was radicalized. During the trial, he explained his actions by saying that he wanted to protect Muslims and the Taliban from American soldiers. It also turned out that he had then been in contact with high-ranking IS supporters.
- It was a radical Islamist attack in uniform in the ranks, so he will be brought before an arquebusier patrol consisting of soldiers, as it should be, Pete Hegseth comments on the act.
Attorney John Mills points out to the AP that the appeals process for Hasan is not over. He would be surprised if the execution is carried out. - Trying to get it live - an execution by arquebusier - is little more than an attempt by the Trump administration to attract attention and is unlikely to happen, let alone provide any semblance of justice, he adds.
When asked if Hasan made any statement or expressed any last wish, Pete Hegseth answered, according to The Guardian: - I don't care. See you on December 3rd.
