Eye for eye

As an Army counterintelligence agent, Dave Holder encountered many traitors and spies in the officer corps. But none were as bad as Nidal Hasan, the U.S. Army major who on Nov. 5, 2009, used a laser-sighted handgun to murder 13 unarmed American soldiers and injure 32 more at Ft. Hood, Texas. Maybe that’s why, when the Pentagon announced that Hasan was to be executed by firing squad, Holder told me, “I hope the shooters use 40 millimeter grenades.”

On Oct. 6, acting Army Secretary Adam Telle scheduled Hasan’s execution for Dec. 3 at Fort Hood. It was Secretary of War Pete Hegseth who recommended a firing squad, and President Donald Trump authorized it, as only the sitting president can.

Hegseth is a retired infantry officer and an outspoken Christian. I suspect his choice of a firing squad has less to do with recent botched lethal injection executions, as some speculate, than with poetic—and biblical—justice.

Note the venue for Hasan’s execution: Ft. Hood, the scene of his crimes. Note the instrument of his death: bullets, the instrument he chose for his victims. An eye for an eye. Then, in a very Old Testament move, Hegseth on Oct. 8 said, “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public.”

A bad move, I thought, as did many religious leaders, lawmakers, and even some family members of Hasan’s victims. Public executions were once common in this country. But in 1936, thousands gathered in Owensboro, Ky., to watch Rainey Bethea hanged in what is widely regarded as America’s last public execution. Today, executing Hasan publicly would have scandalized Main Street, damaged our standing abroad, inflamed our enemies, and lived forever as jihadist kindling on the internet. On Oct. 15, Trump announced that he would not allow the execution to be live-streamed. “Many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device,” he wrote in a post on social media.

And yet, Hasan betrayed his country, murdered the innocent, and violated one of our nation’s most solemn oaths—acts that seem to cry for retributive justice.

“An enlisted soldier swears to obey. An officer swears to support and defend the Constitution. … with no obedience clause, because the officer is the one who decides what’s lawful,” Holder told me. “Every parent who puts a kid on the bus to basic training is handing that kid to an officer. That’s the deepest trust this country extends to anyone in uniform.”

Retired Sgt. First Class Tim Moriarty has had enough of traitors. He was there in 2003 when 101st Airborne soldier Hasan Akbar killed and wounded members of Moriarty’s unit in Kuwait. Just after Moriarity’s 2006 Ramadi tour, he penned an article warning leaders against ignoring “insider threats.” They didn’t listen. And in 2008, Moriarty lost two company brothers—both beloved—to insider threats in Afghanistan.

Active-duty members and veterans share a kinship forged by service. An American officer killing American soldiers on American soil slashes at the heart of that kinship. It cuts to the bone. Still, it’s the killer Hasan who is getting all the ink.

For example, reporters are quoting attorney John Galligan, who called the rush to execute Hasan in December “horrific”—this though Hasan has been on death row since 2013. Meanwhile, reporters identify his victims with just a number: 13. So, as a Navy veteran, I’d like to pause here to honor the dead:

Staff Sgt. Justin M. DeCrow, 32. Sgt. Amy S. Krueger, 29. Spc. Jason D. Hunt, 22. Spc. Frederick Z. Greene, 29. Pfc. Aaron T. Nemelka, 19. Pfc. Michael S. Pearson, 22. Spc. Kham S. Xiong, 23. Pvt. Francheska Velez, 21. Michael Grant Cahill, 62, retired chief warrant officer and civilian physician assistant. Lt. Col. Juanita L. Warman, 55. Maj. Libardo Eduardo Caraveo, 52. Capt. John P. Gaffaney, 54. Capt. Russell G. Seager, 51.

Hasan did not merely kill 13 people. He wiped out some 560 cumulative years they would likely have lived, along with perhaps a dozen future children. Scores of grandchildren also vanished from family trees. Francheska Velez’s family was already waiting for one of those grandkids: She was pregnant when Hasan killed her.

Now that’s horrific.

Still, I struggle with the death penalty. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus seems to upend the Old Testament “eye for eye” paradigm. WORLD’s Jeff Palomino, a retired Air Force colonel and JAG Corps officer, described the tension well: “The gospel is anti-death. Hasan is getting exactly the outcome he deserves, and yet as Christians, we know this isn’t really how the world’s supposed to work.”

Editor's note: This column has been updated to note that the president rejected the idea of a public execution shortly after we went to press.