Trump Approves Firing Squad Execution for Fort Hood Shooter Nidal Hasan

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Key Points

  • President Trump approved Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recommendation that Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, be executed by an Army firing squad, the Pentagon said Monday.
  • Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle will set the time and place. No date or location had been announced as of Tuesday morning ET.
  • It would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961 and the first by a military firing squad since World War II.
  • ABC News reported that Army policy requires the execution to take place no sooner than 60 days and within 150 days of presidential approval.

President Donald Trump has approved a firing squad execution for Nidal Hasan, the former Army major sentenced to death for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, the Pentagon said late Monday. Trump signed off on a recommendation from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that Hasan be put to death by a U.S. Army firing squad. The Army has not yet said when or where the sentence will be carried out.

What happened

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the decision in a post on X on Monday evening, Oct. 5. He said Hegseth had recommended, and Trump had approved, “death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan.” Parnell added: “The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Judgement day for Hasan has finally come.” Hegseth reposted the statement with the word “Justice,” CNBC reported.

Hasan, 56, was an Army psychiatrist when he opened fire at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Fort Hood on Nov. 5, 2009. The attack killed 12 soldiers and one civilian and wounded 32 people before he was shot, wounded and arrested, according to ABC News. BBC News described it as the deadliest non-combat attack ever on an American military base.

A military jury convicted Hasan in August 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder and sentenced him to death. He represented himself at his court-martial and admitted to the shooting. When the judge asked whom he believed he was defending, he answered, “The leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban,” Military Times reported.

The Pentagon’s statement describes Hasan as a terrorist. His convictions were for murder and attempted murder under military law, not terrorism charges, and NBC News noted that a Joint Terrorism Task Force had found he “was not involved in terrorist activities or terrorist planning” and that authorities said he acted alone.

Latest development

The acting secretary of the Army, Adam R. Telle, is responsible for setting the date and location, according to NBC News and Al Jazeera. As of Tuesday morning ET, neither had been announced. CBS News said it had reached out to Hasan’s attorney for comment, and the White House did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a court-martial death sentence cannot be carried out until the president approves it. Hegseth said in September 2025 that he had asked Trump for it, CNBC reported. The approval follows years of appeals. The Army Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the sentence in 2020 and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces did so in 2023, Al Jazeera reported, and the Supreme Court declined to hear Hasan’s case on March 31, 2025, according to CNBC.

Why it matters

No U.S. service member has been executed since 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The last service member executed by firing squad was Army Pvt. Eddie Slovik, shot in 1945 for desertion during World War II, NBC News and Military Times reported.

The decision also fits the administration’s wider push on capital punishment. Trump restored federal death penalty policy by executive order in January 2025, and CBS News reported that the Justice Department said earlier this year that federal officials should consider methods other than lethal injection, including firing squads. South Carolina used a firing squad three times last year, the first such executions in the United States since 2010, according to CBS News.

Hasan is one of four people on the U.S. military’s death row, according to ABC News and CNBC. Task & Purpose reported that all four are held at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth.

What happens next

ABC News reported that Army policy requires an execution to happen no sooner than 60 days and no later than 150 days after the president approves it, and that Army regulations call for at least two media outlets to be selected as witnesses.

The location is still open. ABC News reported in June that an internal Army plan known as Operation Resolute Justice called for coordinating with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to move condemned military prisoners from Fort Leavenworth to the federal execution facility in Terre Haute, Indiana. Task & Purpose said it is not clear whether Hasan’s execution will take place there.

The process may not be final. Al Jazeera reported that Hasan could still put the execution on hold with an appeal in the civilian federal court system. No new court filing had been reported as of Tuesday morning ET. We will update this story when the Army announces a date or if a legal challenge is filed.

Related live coverage

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Sources