Trump Approves Firing Squad Execution for Fort Hood Shooter

President Donald Trump has officially approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009. The Pentagon announced the decision on Tuesday, October 6. Hasan's execution will be the first carried out by the U.S. military itself since 1961, rather than by the civilian justice system. Pentagon officials stated that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recommended the execution, and the President approved it. The date and location of the execution will be determined later.

Hasan, a 56-year-old U.S.-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, carried out the attack on November 5, 2009. He entered a medical facility at the base, which served as a staging point for troops deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, armed with two pistols and pre-loaded magazines. Shouting "Allahu Akbar," he opened fire on soldiers awaiting medical exams and vaccinations. The attack was the deadliest on a U.S. military installation in history. Hasan killed 13 people, including 12 service members, and wounded 32 others, most of whom were military personnel. A civilian police officer subdued him with service weapon fire, leaving Hasan paralyzed from the waist down.

Hasan's family emigrated from Judea and Samaria. He had visited the region years before the attack and maintained contact with relatives there. Reports indicated his family owned apartments in Ramallah, and one of his brothers had moved from the U.S. to Judea and Samaria. Investigations and subsequent trials revealed Hasan was influenced by the global jihadist movement Al-Qaeda, stating he had "switched sides" in what he called "America's war against Islam." He described the attack as a protest against the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, aiming to prevent the killing of his fellow Muslims, including Taliban leaders. Shortly before the attack, he communicated with Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen linked to Al-Qaeda and considered a "spiritual mentor" to many terrorists, who was later killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen.

In 2013, military jurors sentenced Hasan to death. He represented himself during the trial, presented no witnesses, and did not contest the charges, leading his court-appointed defenders to express concerns he was intentionally seeking his own execution. Hasan is set to be only the second person executed under the U.S. military justice system since 2010. Three other individuals under military death sentences are currently in custody. Since 1608, at least 144 civilian prisoners have been executed by firing squad in the U.S., primarily in Utah. However, only four such executions have occurred since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977 after a decade-long moratorium. The last civilian execution by firing squad was in 2025, for Brad Sigmon, a South Carolina resident convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend's parents. In 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would permit firing squad executions to expedite death sentences, as appeals and disputes over execution methods often cause lengthy delays. A recent incident in Tennessee on October 1, where an execution by lethal injection failed, leading to a governor-ordered suspension of all executions in the state until year-end, highlighted these challenges. Currently, only five Republican-leaning states permit firing squad executions: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah.