War Secretary Pete Hegseth will ask President Donald Trump to approve the execution of Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter who killed 14 people and injured dozens more in 2009.
Hasan was previously convicted of his crimes before a military jury and was sentenced to death. He has sat on death row for more than a decade.
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“I am 100% committed to ensuring the death penalty is carried out for Nidal Hasan,” Hegseth said in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner.
“This savage terrorist deserves the harshest lawful punishment for his 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood. The victims and survivors deserve justice without delays,” he added.
Hasan lost his final appeal to remove his death sentence earlier this year. He’s imprisoned at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
The former Army major said he committed the shootings because he viewed soldiers as “going against the Islamic Empire.”
Army staff will need to pass forward the recommendation for Hasan’s execution, according to regulations. That recommendation will then go from the Army secretary to Hegseth, and then he will provide a recommendation to Trump.
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“Inmate Hasan’s packet is now in the staffing process for presidential action,” a War Department official told The Daily Caller.
If executed, Hasan will be the first soldier to be executed after a court-martial since Army Pvt. John Bennett in 1961. Bennett was hanged for the rape and attempted murder of a child.