The Wake Up America show with Austin Petersen
Oct 7, 2026 · 56 min · 14 segments
Can the state execute anyone humanely? Austin examines President Trump's approval of a firing squad for Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hasan, Christa Pike's failed lethal injection and what…
Austin PetersenHost
Andrew NapolitanoGuest
Jeremy KauffmanGuest
Hasan, who was an army psychia- psychiatrist, went to noon prayers with a gun.
He drove to a soldier readiness processing facility that was full of unarmed soldiers.
After the shooting, he told a sanity board, quote, "I shot to kill." He denied depressive, manic, psychotic anxiety, or cognitive symptoms during the attack.
A military jury court-- uh, j- military jury court-martialed him and sentenced him to death back in 2013.
The lead prosecutor, Colonel Michael Mulligan, rested the sentencing case after two days of testimony from widows and from parents.
Jolene Cahill told the court her husband, retired Chief Warrant Officer Michael Cahill, gave his life trying to stop Hasan.
The emiles-- appeals process followed then because military law requires them for any death sentence.
The Army Court of Criminal Appeals and the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces even reviewed the case.
And early in 2025, after those courts upheld the sentence, Hasan then asked the Supreme Court to step in, and in March of 2025, the Supreme Court denied review of the case.
Hegseth recommended death by army firing squad, and the president approved it.
There are gonna still be schedules and logistics and the gravity of the state taking a life we'll all talk about, but judgment day may be closer now.
Fox News reported it'd be the first time a president has successfully signed off on a military execution since 1961.
The last time was Private John Bennett, who was hanged on April 13th, 1961, after he attempted to murder an 11-year-old girl in Austria.
President George W. Bush also approved a military execution, but a federal court stopped it in 2008.
Um, three other inmates are currently on the military's death row with Hasan, but this is the rarest use of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Hasan, who was an army psychia- psychiatrist, went to noon prayers with a gun.
He drove to a soldier readiness processing facility that was full of unarmed soldiers.
After the shooting, he told a sanity board, quote, "I shot to kill." He denied depressive, manic, psychotic anxiety, or cognitive symptoms during the attack.
A military jury court-- uh, j- military jury court-martialed him and sentenced him to death back in 2013.
The lead prosecutor, Colonel Michael Mulligan, rested the sentencing case after two days of testimony from widows and from parents.
Jolene Cahill told the court her husband, retired Chief Warrant Officer Michael Cahill, gave his life trying to stop Hasan.
The emiles-- appeals process followed then because military law requires them for any death sentence.
The Army Court of Criminal Appeals and the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces even reviewed the case.
And early in 2025, after those courts upheld the sentence, Hasan then asked the Supreme Court to step in, and in March of 2025, the Supreme Court denied review of the case.
Hegseth recommended death by army firing squad, and the president approved it.
There are gonna still be schedules and logistics and the gravity of the state taking a life we'll all talk about, but judgment day may be closer now.
Fox News reported it'd be the first time a president has successfully signed off on a military execution since 1961.
The last time was Private John Bennett, who was hanged on April 13th, 1961, after he attempted to murder an 11-year-old girl in Austria.
President George W. Bush also approved a military execution, but a federal court stopped it in 2008.
Um, three other inmates are currently on the military's death row with Hasan, but this is the rarest use of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
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