President Donald Trump has approved the first military execution by firing squad in more than 80 years.
The order targets Nidal Malik Hasan, 54, the former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people in a 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recommended the method, and Trump signed off on October 6, according to a statement posted by Hegseth’s assistant, Sean Parnell, on X.
Parnell wrote: “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.”
He continued: “The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Judgement day for Hasan has finally come.”
Hasan has sat on military death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, since his 2013 conviction. Four men currently occupy that row, including Hasan and Ronald Gray, an Army specialist whose 2008 execution was approved by President George W. Bush but halted by a judge. Gray remains at Leavenworth.
The military’s last carried-out execution came in 1961, when Pvt. John Bennett died by hanging at Fort Leavenworth. Bennett had been convicted of raping and attempting to kill a young girl.
The last military execution by firing squad, specifically, was that of Pvt. Eddie D. Slovik. Army Times records show Slovik was shot in France on January 31, 1945, for desertion during World War II. No service member has faced the firing squad since.
Hasan’s case returned to prominence through the October 6 social media announcement. The timing places his ordered execution method as a historical outlier in the modern American military justice system, where capital punishment has grown exceedingly rare even as it remains technically available.
On November 5, 2009, Hasan walked into a medical building at Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas, where soldiers were receiving medical check-ups. He shouted “Allahu akbar” and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun. Thirteen people died and more than 30 suffered injuries in the attack.
Hasan offered little defense at his court-martial. He told jurors that evidence would show he was the shooter and described himself as a soldier who had “switched sides.” He stated the attack was designed to stop deploying troops from going to Afghanistan and killing fellow Muslims.
The Secretary of the Army will now determine when and where Hasan’s execution will take place.