President Trump has approved death by firing squad for the Army major who murdered 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, the Pentagon confirmed this week.
Quick Take
- Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended firing squad and President Trump approved it for Nidal Hasan.
- Hasan was convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others.
- The move would mark the first U.S. military execution in more than 60 years.
- Firing squad executions remain rare nationwide but have gained new attention since Idaho made the method its primary execution option.
The Pentagon Confirms a Historic Decision
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the decision in blunt terms. “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,” Parnell said, according to multiple news outlets that reported the statement this week. The language left no ambiguity about who made the call or how Hasan would die.
Reporters at several outlets, including UPI, the New York Post, and CBS News, repeated the same Pentagon attribution almost word for word. That kind of matching coverage across separate newsrooms gives strong confidence in the basic fact pattern, even though the Pentagon has not yet released a written order or formal document laying out every procedural step.
Why Fort Hood Still Matters Seventeen Years Later
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist at the time, opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009. He killed 13 people and injured dozens more in what officials have long described as an act of terrorism carried out against American troops on American soil. A military jury convicted him and sentenced him to death, but his case sat for years as appeals and legal questions slowed any path toward actual execution.
That long delay is part of why this announcement carries so much weight. A death sentence handed down in court is one thing. Actually carrying it out is another, especially inside the military justice system, where executions have become almost unheard of. The last military execution took place more than six decades ago, which is why reporters and officials alike have called this moment historic.
A Method the Military Has Rarely Used
Firing squad executions are uncommon across the entire American justice system, not just the military. Research cited by death penalty researchers found that shooting accounted for only about 1 percent of executions carried out in the United States between 1608 and 1976, and just a fraction of a percent of executions since 1976. Most states that still allow capital punishment rely on lethal injection, not gunfire.
That rarity is exactly why Idaho’s decision last year drew so much national attention. Idaho lawmakers made firing squad the state’s primary execution method starting July 1, 2026, after years of difficulty finding reliable drugs for lethal injection. That state-level shift put firing squad executions back into public conversation well before the Pentagon’s announcement about Hasan, and it likely shaped how many Americans processed this week’s news.
What Conservatives See in This Decision
For many conservative voters, this decision reads as straightforward justice finally catching up to a mass murderer. Hasan killed American soldiers in uniform, on a military base, during what prosecutors described as a terrorist attack. A military jury already decided he deserved death. President Trump and Secretary Hegseth choosing a swift, certain method to finally carry out that sentence fits a simple principle many Americans hold: justice delayed for nearly two decades is justice that should no longer wait.
Supporters of the firing squad method also point to its track record. Researchers studying executions have noted that firing squads have a long history of working exactly as intended, without the complications that have plagued some lethal injection procedures in recent years. For a case as serious as a mass shooting at a military base, choosing a method with a reliable record is not a small detail.
What Comes Next
The Pentagon’s statement establishes that the approval has happened, but it does not yet spell out an execution date, location, or full operational protocol. Those specifics typically follow after a method is authorized, moving through additional military and legal channels before a final execution order is carried out. Americans watching this case should expect more details to emerge from the Department of Defense in the coming weeks.
What is already clear is the headline fact: the man responsible for one of the deadliest attacks on a U.S. military installation in modern history is now facing execution by firing squad, with the recommendation and approval coming from the very top of the chain of command.
Families of the Fort Hood victims have waited seventeen years for this chapter to close. This week’s announcement does not end that wait, but it marks the clearest signal yet that the government intends to finish what a military jury started back in 2013.
Sources:
idahostatesman.com, nypost.com, idoc.idaho.gov
