Trump Approves First Military Firing Squad Execution Since WWII for Fort Hood Shooter Nidal Hasan

President Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people in a 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced the decision on X on Monday night, writing, "Judgement day for Hasan has finally come." Secretary of the Army Adam Telle said in an order released Tuesday that the execution will take place at Fort Hood on Dec. 3.

If it goes ahead, it would be the first U.S. military execution in more than six decades and the first by firing squad since World War II. The military last carried out an execution in 1961, by hanging. Its last firing squad execution came in 1945, when an American soldier who deserted during the war was put to death.

Hasan was working as an Army psychiatrist in November 2009 when he opened fire at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Fort Hood, where troops were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others. Civilian security officers shot him, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Hasan represented himself at his 2013 trial and told the court, "the evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter." A military jury convicted him on all counts and sentenced him to death. The automatic appeals process ended only when the Supreme Court denied his final petition in the spring of 2025.

Parnell said Trump acted on the recommendation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said last September he was "100 percent committed to ensuring the death penalty is carried out for Nidal Hasan." The Pentagon has not explained why it chose a firing squad or why it is moving now, and the White House referred questions to the Pentagon. Hasan is one of just four people on military death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. All four are held at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

The date is not guaranteed. Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said Hasan could delay the proceedings by filing a habeas corpus appeal in federal court. "The fact that the president has approved Mr. Hasan's death sentence is another step closer to his execution," Maher said. "But that does not mean that his execution will be imminent." She noted that Ronald Gray, convicted of rapes and murders near Fort Bragg in the 1980s, is still on military death row even though President George W. Bush approved his sentence in 2008. Eugene Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School, said such habeas cases typically take years.

Death penalty experts told NPR the timing may be tied to the controversy over Tennessee's botched lethal injection of Christa Pike, who was hospitalized after surviving two injection attempts. "This moment in time is one where states are really thinking about: what are we doing and what best serves the death penalty?" said Corinna Lain, a University of Richmond law professor. The Justice Department made firing squads available for federal executions earlier this year at Trump's direction, and seven states now allow them, the highest number on record according to Fordham professor Deborah Denno.

Firing squads have gone wrong too. Last year in South Carolina, an autopsy indicated that the shooters may have prolonged a prisoner's death by missing his heart. Fidell also criticized the way the news was released, saying a social media post was not a "formal, dignified" way to announce it. The Pentagon has not held a formal press briefing since May. Death sentences have fallen about 90 percent over three decades, and a 2025 Gallup poll put public support for capital punishment at a five-decade low.