WASHINGTON, D.C.: President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring more than 30 others in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting in Texas.

The decision moves Hasan closer to becoming the first person executed by the U.S. military since 1961. The execution will take place on 3 Dceember 2026/

"Judgment day for Hasan has finally come," a Pentagon statement said.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth later announced the execution would be public, the first public execution in the United States since 1937.

"And we'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public, because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things," Hegseth said.

"It's going to be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad," he added. The secretary said the execution would be livestreamed.

"Livestreaming the taking of a life by firing squad would only compound the cruelty of the death penalty and perpetuate the cycle of violence that the authorities purportedly seek to end," Amnesty International said in a statement on Friday.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, entered a medical building where soldiers were receiving medical checks before deployment. He shouted "Allahu akbar," meaning "God is great" in Arabic, and opened fire with a handgun equipped with a laser sight.

Thirteen people were killed, and more than 30 were wounded in the attack.

Hasan said he carried out the shooting to stop the soldiers from going to Afghanistan and killing fellow Muslims. He made little attempt to defend himself during his trial.

He told jurors that the evidence would show he was the gunman and described himself as a soldier who had "switched sides".

Trump's approval starts a series of legal and administrative steps before the execution can take place. However, Hasan could delay the process for years by filing a habeas corpus appeal in the civilian federal courts, according to an article published in May in Army Lawyer magazine.

Death sentences are extremely rare in the U.S. military justice system, and executions are even less common. Four men, including Hasan, are currently on military death row at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

President George W. Bush approved the execution of Army Spc. Ronald Gray in 2008, but a judge later blocked it. Gray remains at Fort Leavenworth.

The last person executed by the U.S. military was Pvt. John Bennett, who was hanged in 1961 after being convicted of raping an 11-year-old girl.

Trump approved Hasan's firing squad execution days after a failed attempt to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection in Tennessee. The failure led the state's governor to suspend further executions for the year and order an independent review.

Trump has also revived the use of the federal death penalty after an informal pause under previous administrations. The federal Government carried out 13 executions between 2020 and early 2021, making Trump the U.S. president associated with the most executions in more than 130 years.

Asked whether the failed Tennessee execution would lead him to seek changes to the death penalty system, Trump called it an "interesting situation".

"It shouldn't be very difficult," Trump said about carrying out lethal injections.