Trump approves execution of psychiatrist who killed 13 in US

In 2009, US Army psychiatrist Hasan walked into a medical building at a military base where soldiers were undergoing checks before deployment to Afghanistan, shouted “Allahu Akbar” and opened fire, killing 13 people and wounding more than thirty. President Donald Trump has approved carrying out the death sentence: Hasan is to be shot by a military firing squad, the Associated Press reports.

Hasan himself said he was trying to stop soldiers who were being sent to kill Muslims in Afghanistan. At his trial he pleaded guilty and described himself as a soldier who had “switched sides.” A military tribunal sentenced him to death.

A sentence that could be delayed for years

Death sentences in the US military justice system are rare, and actual executions are rarer still: four men are currently awaiting execution. Trump’s approval sets the process in motion, but the execution could still be years away — Hasan, for instance, could significantly draw out the case by appealing to a civilian court.

How long such a process can take is illustrated by the case of serial killer Ronald Gray, convicted of four murders and eight rapes. His execution was approved back under President George W. Bush, but in 2008 a federal judge halted the sentence, and the case has not moved forward since.

The last soldier executed — in 1961

The last person executed under the US military justice system remains Private John Bennett. He was hanged in 1961 for raping an eleven-year-old Austrian girl — Bennett committed the crime when he was eighteen.

Trump is a committed supporter of the death penalty

Trump has pushed for broader use of the death penalty. During his first term as president, he reinstated the federal death penalty: between 2020 and 2021, federal authorities executed thirteen people, making Trump the president with the most executions in more than 130 years.

Source: novinky.cz