MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The man convicted of the mass shooting at Fort Hood in 2009 will be executed by a firing squad. The U.S. military has not used a firing squad for an execution since World War II. Now the Pentagon says this one is planned for December 3 at Fort Hood. NPR's Rachel Treisman reports.
RACHEL TREISMAN, BYLINE: Nidal Hasan was working as an Army psychiatrist when he opened fire at Fort Hood's Soldier Readiness Processing Center, killing 13 people and wounding 32 others. A military jury convicted him and sentenced him to death in 2013. This week, a Pentagon spokesperson announced on social media that President Trump signed off on Hasan's execution by firing squad, providing few details.
EUGENE FIDELL: I think we have an administration that truly believes in the death penalty.
TREISMAN: Eugene Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School, wasn't surprised by the decision.
FIDELL: The other part of the equation, of course, is what Dr. Hasan was convicted of having done, which was a very, very serious offense.
TREISMAN: The last time the U.S. military executed anyone was in 1961, by hanging. It last used death by firing squad in 1945, to punish an American soldier who deserted during World War II. Hasan is one of just four people currently on military death row.
FIDELL: We're not bloodthirsty in applying the death penalty to military personnel.
TREISMAN: It's not clear why the White House and Pentagon chose death by firing squad. They did not respond to NPR's questions. But Corinna Lain of the University of Richmond School of Law, who wrote a book about lethal injections, has a hunch.
CORINNA LAIN: I think we're seeing the White House move to the firing squad in large part because of what's happening with Christa Pike.
TREISMAN: Pike is the death-row inmate in Tennessee who was hospitalized after surviving two lethal injections. Lain says Pike's case is one of many examples of botched lethal injections, prompting a growing number of states to turn to firing squads, but those have also caused issues, including a case in South Carolina last year where lawyers say their client's death was drawn out by badly aimed shots.
LAIN: South Carolina's experience shows that even firing squad executions can go horribly wrong.
TREISMAN: Fidell says Hasan could seek a writ of habeas corpus from a federal court. Those cases, he says, typically take years.
Rachel Treisman, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.