President Donald Trump has approved the use of a firing squad to execute Nidal Hasan, the former US Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.
The decision to execute the former US Army major by an Army firing squad followed a recommendation from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a post on X.
- Advertisement -
Parnell said Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar” — Arabic for “God is greatest” — during the attack, which claimed the lives of 12 unarmed active-duty soldiers and a retired serviceman. Thirty-two others were wounded.
The Secretary of the Army will determine when and where the execution takes place, Parnell said, declaring: “Judgment day for Hasan has finally come.”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended — and President Donald J. Trump has approved — death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan, the jihadist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009. He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting “Allahu Akbar” during the attack. The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Judgement day for Hasan has finally come.
— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellASW) October 5, 2026
The range of federal execution methods was expanded partly because authorities have faced growing difficulties in securing the drugs used for lethal injections. Such executions have also encountered serious problems during the procedure itself.
Last week, an attempt by Tennessee to execute a woman for the first time in more than 200 years failed when prison staff were unable to properly administer the lethal injection. Death-row prisoner Christa Pike was left unconscious but alive.
A military jury sentenced Hasan to death in August 2013 after convicting him on 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder. He had used a laser-sighted handgun to fire inside a medical facility at the sprawling military base in central Texas.
Twelve unarmed active-duty soldiers and a retired serviceman were killed in the 2009 attack
The shooting occurred just weeks before Hasan, who is now 56, was due to deploy to Afghanistan. Police shot him during his arrest, leaving him partially paralyzed and dependent on a wheelchair.
Death Penalty Action, an organization that opposes capital punishment, criticized Trump’s decision, saying: “There is nothing Donald Trump loves more than the power to kill.”
Executions carried out by the US military are extremely uncommon. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a death sentence handed down by court-martial cannot be carried out “until approved by the president.”
If Hasan’s execution proceeds, it would be the first US military execution since 1961, Death Penalty Action said.
The Death Penalty Information Center said the 1961 execution was conducted by hanging. The center identified the apparent last known US military firing-squad execution as one carried out “by musketry” in November 1945.
At least five states have authorized firing squads under state law, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. South Carolina carried out the first such execution in the United States in 15 years in 2025.
