President Donald Trump has approved a firing squad execution for Nidal Hasan, the former US Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009.
The execution has been scheduled for 3 December at Fort Hood, under an order issued by Army Secretary Adam Telle. If carried out, it would be the first US military execution in more than six decades and the first military firing-squad execution since the Second World War.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the decision on social media, writing: “Judgement day for Hasan has finally come.” The Pentagon declined to provide further details.
Hasan could still delay the execution by filing a habeas corpus appeal in the federal courts, according to Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Centre.
“The fact that the president has approved Mr Hasan’s death sentence is another step closer to his execution,” Ms Maher said. “But that does not mean that his execution will be imminent.”
Hasan’s sentence was automatically appealed after a military jury convicted him in 2013. The US Supreme Court rejected his final petition in spring 2025.
Why a firing squad has been chosen
The reason for selecting a firing squad has not been explained. Several death penalty experts suggested the decision may be linked to renewed scrutiny of lethal injection after the botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee last week.
Corinna Lain, author of Secrets of the Killing State, said states had spent millions trying to carry out executions while facing repeated problems with lethal injection.
“So this moment in time is one where states are really thinking about: what are we doing and what best serves the death penalty?” she said. “Whether the answer to that is firing squad is another question entirely.”
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended the execution. He said last September that he was “100 percent committed to ensuring the death penalty is carried out for Nidal Hasan”.
“This savage terrorist deserves the harshest lawful punishment for his 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood,” Mr Hegseth said at the time. “The victims and survivors deserve justice without delays.”
Under Army rules introduced in 2023, the president can choose the method of a military execution. Once approval is given, the Army secretary determines the time, place and method, with the execution due to take place within 60 to 150 days.
Hasan attack and military death row
Hasan was working as an Army psychiatrist when he opened fire at a Fort Hood processing centre in November 2009, where troops were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others before civilian security officers shot him, leaving him paralysed from the waist down.
He represented himself at trial and admitted that “the evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter”. Hasan, an American-born Muslim, said he had “switched sides” because of US military operations in the Middle East.
He was dismissed from the Army and sentenced to death. He is one of four people on military death row, all of whom were convicted of murder, and is being held at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
The last US military firing-squad execution was that of Private Eddie Slovik, who was shot for desertion in France in 1945. The last military execution of any kind took place in 1961, when Private John Bennett was hanged for the rape and attempted murder of an Austrian girl.
Death penalty under renewed scrutiny
Seven US states now allow firing squads as an execution method, while the Justice Department made them available for federal executions earlier this year following a directive from Mr Trump.
Deborah Denno, a Fordham Law School professor who studies execution methods, said firing squads could cause death within seconds when carried out properly. However, a South Carolina autopsy last year found that bullets had missed a prisoner’s heart, potentially prolonging his suffering.
Death sentences in the United States have fallen by 90 per cent over the past three decades, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Centre. Fewer than 50 new death sentences have been imposed each year since 2015, while a 2025 Gallup poll found public support for capital punishment at a five-decade low.
