President Donald Trump has approved a military firing-squad execution for Nidal Hasan, the former Army major convicted of killing 13 people and injuring more than 30 others at Fort Hood.
Hasan, who later embraced jihadist ideology, said he carried out the 2009 attack because he opposed deployment to Afghanistan and wanted to shield Islamic and Taliban leaders from American forces.
A military jury sentenced him to death in 2013 after finding him guilty of the Fort Hood shooting.
Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said Monday that Hasan will become only the second person since 2010 to be executed by firing squad.
“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,” Parnell wrote on social media.
Parnell said Hasan killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting “Allahu Akbar,” an Arabic phrase meaning “God is great.”
“The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution,” he added. “Judgment day for Hasan has finally come.”
Hegseth shared Parnell’s announcement on X, adding a brief response: “Justice.”
The White House was contacted for comment.
Nidal Hasan (pictured), the former Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people and injuring more than 30 others during the Fort Hood mass shooting, is set to face execution by firing squad
Since 1608, at least 144 civilian prisoners have been executed by shooting in the United States, with nearly all of those cases occurring in Utah. Only four such executions have taken place since capital punishment resumed after a 10-year pause in 1977
Hasan entered a medical readiness facility at Fort Hood in November 2009 armed with two handguns and multiple ammunition magazines.
He reportedly yelled “Allahu Akbar” before firing at soldiers who were waiting for medical examinations and vaccinations.
The attack became the deadliest shooting ever recorded at a domestic U.S. military installation.
Hasan was shot during the exchange of gunfire and left paralyzed from the waist down. He received the death sentence four years later.
At trial, Hasan told jurors that he had “switched sides” in what he described as America’s war against Islam.
He acknowledged carrying out the shooting, saying he wanted to prevent U.S. troops from being sent overseas to kill fellow Muslims.
Prosecutors also argued that Hasan was motivated by his opposition to an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.
Despite the attack’s links to jihadist beliefs, the Department of Defense classified it as workplace violence rather than terrorism.
Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell announced Monday that, with President Trump’s approval, Hasan will be only the second person since 2010 executed by firing squad
Hasan is one of four inmates on death row in the US Army’s justice system.
Since 1608, at least 144 civilian prisoners have been executed by shooting in America, nearly all in Utah.
Only four have occurred since 1977, when the use of capital punishment resumed after a ten-year pause.
The first of those, Gary Gilmore, caused a media sensation in part because he waived his appeals and volunteered to be executed.
When asked for his last words, Gilmore replied, ‘Let’s do it.’
In March of last year, Brad Sigmon, a South Carolina man who killed his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat was executed by firing squad.
The Justice Department announced earlier this year it would adopt firing squads as a permitted method of execution as the Trump administration moves to ramp up and expedite capital punishment cases.
The Justice Department is also reauthorizing the use of single-drug lethal injections with pentobarbital that were used to carry out 13 executions during the first Trump administration – more than under any president in modern history.
Sgt. Fanuaee Vea embraces Pvt. Savannah Green while trying to reach friends and family outside Fort Hood on November 5, 2009 in Killeen, Texas
During his trial, Hasan told jurors he had ‘switched sides’ in what he called America’s war with Islam
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The Biden administration had removed pentobarbital from the federal protocol over concerns about the potential for unnecessary pain and suffering.
The moves were announced as part of a broader push to step up federal executions after a moratorium under the Biden administration.
Only three defendants remain on federal death row after Democratic President Joe Biden converted 37 of their sentences to life in prison, though the Trump administration has so far authorized seeking death sentences against 44 defendants.
‘The prior administration failed in its duty to protect the American people by refusing to pursue and carry out the ultimate punishment against the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child murderers, and cop killers,’ Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
‘Under President Trump´s leadership, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims.’
The federal government has not previously included firing squad as a method of execution in its protocols, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Five states currently allow executions by firing squad: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah.
The pentobarbital protocol was adopted by Bill Barr, attorney general during Trump´s first term, to replace a three-drug mix used in the 2000s, the last time federal executions were carried out before Trump’s first term in office.
Attorney General Merrick Garland in the final days of the Biden administration withdrew the pentobarbital lethal injection policy after a government review of scientific and medical research found there remains ‘significant uncertainty’ about whether its use causes unnecessary pain and suffering.’
In 2020, under Barr’s leadership, the Justice Department published a rule in the Federal Register to allow the federal government to conduct executions by lethal injection or use ‘any other manner prescribed by the law of the state in which the sentence was imposed.’
A number of states allow other methods of execution, including electrocution, inhaling nitrogen gas or death by firing squad.
