President Trump has approved death by firing squad for Nidal Hasan, the Army major convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009.
Quick Take
- Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell says Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recommended firing squad and President Trump approved it for Nidal Hasan.
- Hasan was convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood attack that killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others.
- The execution would be the first U.S. military execution in more than 60 years.
- The decision lands amid a wider national shift back toward firing squads as a backup execution method.
Pentagon Confirms The President Signed Off
The announcement came straight from the Pentagon. Spokesman Sean Parnell said Hegseth recommended the method and Trump gave final approval for Hasan’s execution by U.S. Army firing squad. That short statement, repeated across major outlets within hours, confirms the two men whose names matter most: the Defense Secretary who proposed it and the President who signed off.
Hasan’s case has sat unresolved for well over a decade. He was convicted of murder for opening fire at the Fort Hood Soldier Readiness Processing Center in 2009, killing 13 people and wounding dozens more. A military jury sentenced him to death, but appeals and procedural delays kept him off death row in any practical sense for years. This latest move signals Washington wants the sentence carried out, not just affirmed on paper.
Why Firing Squad, And Why Now
Firing squad executions are rare in American history, but they are not new. The method has deep roots in military justice, going back to Civil War-era desertion cases and continuing through World War Two, when Army Private Eddie Slovik was shot for desertion in 1945. If Hasan’s execution goes forward this way, reporting notes it would mark the first U.S. military execution in more than 60 years, a striking historical marker for a case that has already dragged on for 17 years.
The choice of method is not happening in a vacuum. Idaho adopted firing squad as its primary execution method in 2025 after years of trouble finding reliable drugs for lethal injection. States have struggled with botched injections, supply shortages, and legal challenges to chemical protocols, pushing several, including Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah, to keep firing squad on the books as a backup. Hasan’s case brings that same practical debate into the military justice system.
What The Public Record Does Not Yet Show
The Pentagon’s statement is the official word so far, but it is a spokesman’s announcement rather than a released court order or signed execution warrant. That is a normal part of how these announcements roll out before formal paperwork becomes public, and it does not change the substance of what Hegseth recommended and what Trump approved. The underlying conviction and death sentence are not in question in any of the reporting.
What remains unsettled is the operational side: scheduling, location, and the procedural steps the Army will follow to carry out the sentence. Military executions follow a distinct chain of command separate from civilian state systems, and that process typically includes further review before a date is set. None of that uncertainty touches the core fact already confirmed by the Pentagon: the method has been chosen, and the President has signed off on it.
A Long-Overdue Reckoning For Fort Hood Families
For the families of the 13 killed at Fort Hood, this announcement closes a chapter that has stayed open far too long. Military justice moves slowly by design, built for fairness over speed, but 17 years is an extraordinary wait for any victim’s family seeking finality. A firing squad execution, rare as it is, would finally match the gravity of the crime with a punishment carried out rather than endlessly litigated.
Conservatives have long argued that justice delayed is justice denied, especially in cases involving mass murder of American servicemembers on a U.S. base. Trump’s approval, following Hegseth’s recommendation, reflects a straightforward view: a death sentence handed down by a military jury should eventually be carried out, not shelved indefinitely by procedural inertia. That principle, more than the specific method chosen, is what this moment represents.
Whatever the final timeline looks like, the headline fact stands firm. The nation’s top defense official recommended firing squad, and the President approved it, for a man convicted of one of the deadliest attacks ever carried out on a U.S. military installation.
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