Trump signs off on firing-squad execution for Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan

President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 in the 2009 attack at Fort Hood, Texas. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced the approval on X on Monday 5 October, and Secretary of the Army Adam Telle ordered the execution to take place at Fort Hood on 3 December.

It would be the first US military execution in more than six decades and the first by firing squad since the Second World War, NPR reported. Under military law a president must approve an execution, and Reuters reported that Trump acted on a recommendation from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who called Hasan a savage terrorist who deserved the harshest lawful punishment.

Hasan defended himself at his 2013 trial and told the court the evidence would show he was the shooter. A military jury convicted him on all counts, including 13 of premeditated murder, and sentenced him to death. The automatic appeals process ended when the Supreme Court denied his final petition in spring 2025. In the attack he opened fire at a processing centre where soldiers were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan; civilian security officers shot him and left him paralysed from the waist down.