Nearly 17 years after 13 people were gunned down at Fort Hood, Texas, the former Army officer convicted of the killings is set to face an Army firing squad.
President Donald Trump has approved the execution of former Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan by firing squad, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced late Monday on social media. Parnell said the method was recommended by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CBS News and The Guardian reported.
“The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Judgement day for Hasan has finally come,” Parnell wrote.
The 2009 attack
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, opened fire on Nov. 5, 2009, at a medical facility on Fort Hood, the sprawling Texas post that served as a staging point for troops deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan. Thirteen people were killed and more than 30 were wounded; 12 of the dead and 30 of the wounded were soldiers, according to The Guardian. A civilian police officer shot Hasan during the attack, leaving him partially paralyzed.
A military jury convicted him and sentenced him to death in 2013. Hasan represented himself at the court-martial, called no witnesses and did not deny the charges, and his court-appointed standby attorneys voiced concern that he was seeking a death sentence, the outlets reported. CBS News said Hasan acknowledged at trial that he carried out the shooting, claiming he was trying to protect Islamic insurgents from U.S. forces. Jurors also heard that he had communicated online with Anwar al-Awlaki, the al-Qaida propagandist later killed in a U.S. drone strike, The Guardian reported.
A rarity on two counts
If carried out, the execution would be the U.S. military’s first of an American service member since 1961, when a soldier was hanged for raping and attempting to murder an 11-year-old girl, according to CBS News.
It would also be a rare use of the firing squad. South Carolina carried out three firing squad executions last year, the first in the U.S. since 2010, CBS reported. The federal government usually relies on lethal injection, though the Justice Department said earlier this year that officials should consider other methods, including firing squads.
The appeals road
Hasan’s case has wound through a long appeals process. In 2024 he asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review his conviction, arguing the trial judge violated his right to a public trial by clearing the courtroom before discussing some issues with his attorneys. The justices declined to hear the case last year, CBS reported. CBS said it had reached out to Hasan’s attorney for comment.
No date has been announced. Trump’s approval starts a series of procedural steps, but Hasan could put them on hold, potentially for years, by filing a habeas corpus appeal in the civilian federal courts, the Associated Press reported, citing an article published in May in the magazine Army Lawyer. Four men, including Hasan, are on the military’s death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, according to the AP.
Photo: U.S. Army (public domain). A memorial stone honoring the soldiers and civilians killed on Nov. 5, 2009, unveiled at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2010.
Sources: CBS News; Associated Press (via WRAL); The Guardian.
This article was produced with AI assistance and is based on reporting from CBS News, Associated Press (via WRAL) and The Guardian.