Pentagon Announces Firing Squad Execution for Fort Hood Shooter Nidal Hasan

The Pentagon has announced plans to execute former US Army Major Nidal Hasan by firing squad, marking the first military execution using the method in more than six decades.

Hasan was convicted of killing 13 US soldiers and wounding 32 others during a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood in Texas.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced Monday that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had recommended the execution method and that President Donald Trump had approved it.

The secretary of the Army will determine the date and location of the execution, according to Parnell.

“Judgment day for Hasan has finally come,” Parnell wrote on X.

Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist from Virginia, carried out the November 5, 2009, attack inside a crowded medical facility at Fort Hood, where soldiers preparing for deployment were undergoing medical checks and vaccinations.

The attack was the deadliest non-combat shooting at a US military installation at the time.

During his 2013 court-martial, Hasan acknowledged that he was the gunman and apologised for what he described as “any mistakes.” He also said he believed he was protecting Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Hasan was convicted and sentenced to death.

Military death row

Hasan is currently one of four inmates on the US military’s death row.

Under military law, an execution requires approval from the US president before it can proceed. The case must also undergo appellate review and receive a final determination that the death sentence can legally be carried out.

The military death penalty has faced legal challenges over the decades.

The US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces declared the military death penalty unconstitutional in 1983, but it was reinstated the following year through an executive order signed by then-President Ronald Reagan.

Military executions are separate from the much larger system of state and federal executions in the United States.

Firing squad remains rare in US

Execution by firing squad remains an uncommon method of capital punishment in the United States.

South Carolina carried out a firing-squad execution last year, marking the state’s first use of the method and the first firing-squad execution in the country in 15 years.

Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah also allow firing squads as an execution method under certain circumstances.

Most executions in the United States are carried out by states, although capital punishment remains legally available in 27 states, as well as under federal and military law.

Trump restores federal death penalty

President Trump has consistently supported capital punishment and reinstated the federal death penalty through an executive order signed shortly after returning to office in January 2025.

The move reversed a moratorium imposed by the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden on federal executions.

Trump’s executive order described capital punishment as an “essential tool” for deterring and punishing what it called the most serious acts of lethal violence against Americans.

The planned execution of Hasan would therefore represent a significant moment in the history of the US military death penalty, particularly because of the decision to use a firing squad for the first time since the aftermath of World War II.