The Pentagon announced Monday evening that President Donald Trump has approved a recommendation by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to have convicted Fort Hood mass killer Nidal Hasan executed by a US Army firing squad. Hasan, 56, would be the first person executed after a US armed forces court-martial in 65 years.
The Pentagon announced on Monday evening that President Donald Trump has approved a recommendation by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to have convicted Fort Hood mass killer Nidal Hasan executed by a US Army firing squad.
Hasan, 56, would be the first person executed after a US armed forces court-martial since 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for the rape and attempted murder of a girl in Austria.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a post on X that Hegseth had recommended, and Trump 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." Parnell said Hasan "killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting 'Allahu Akbar' during the attack," and that the secretary of the Army "will set the time and place of the execution." He added: "Judgement day for Hasan has finally come." Hegseth retweeted the announcement, writing simply: "Justice."
Hasan, an Army major and psychiatrist, was convicted and sentenced to death by a 2013 court-martial for the Nov. 5, 2009 shooting spree that killed 13 and injured 32 at the Army base in Killeen, Texas. During his court-martial, Hasan told a judge he was motivated in the shooting to defend the "leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban."
Hegseth said in September 2025 that he had asked Trump to approve Hasan's execution. Under federal law, a person convicted through court-martial and sentenced to death cannot be executed until approved by the president.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Analysis
Why This Matters
- The execution would be the first carried out under a US military court-martial in 65 years, a rare exercise of the military death penalty.
- The case blends terrorism, military justice and the broader capital punishment debate, and the firing squad method has drawn legal scrutiny in recent years.
- With the secretary of the Army to set the time and place, the case will draw continued attention, and legal challenges remain possible before any date is set.
Background
Nidal Hasan, an Army major and psychiatrist, opened fire at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009, killing 13 people and wounding 32. He was convicted by court-martial in 2013 and sentenced to death. Under federal law, a court-martial death sentence cannot be carried out until the president approves, and that approval took more than a decade to arrive.
Military executions are extremely rare in the United States. The firing squad is also an unusual method in modern American practice, where lethal injection has been the dominant means of execution in civilian jurisdictions.
Key Perspectives
The Pentagon and the administration: Officials describe the decision as overdue justice for a convicted terrorist. Parnell characterised Hasan as a "jihadist" who attacked unarmed soldiers, and Hegseth endorsed the decision with a one-word post: "Justice."
Hasan himself: At his court-martial, Hasan said he was acting to defend the Taliban leadership, framing the shooting as religiously and ideologically motivated rather than a personal act.
Critics and skeptics: Military executions are so rare that the procedures around them are largely untested, and the firing squad method has been challenged in civilian courts as potentially cruel. The long gap between sentencing and approval reflects years of litigation over the military death penalty, and further legal challenges may follow before any execution date is set.
What to Watch
- The secretary of the Army setting a time and place for the execution, the next required step.
- Whether legal filings seek to stay or challenge the execution before it is carried out.
- The conduct of the execution itself, given how rarely the military has used capital punishment in modern times.