The US military is set to carry out its first execution in 65 years, with former Army major Nidal Malik Hasan due to face a firing squad at Fort Hood, Texas, the same base where he carried out the 2009 massacre.
The date
Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle announced that the execution will take place at Fort Hood on Thursday 3 December 2026 at 1pm CT, more than 17 years after the attack. The commandant of the United States Disciplinary Barracks will oversee it. It would be the first US military execution since 1961, and the first by firing squad since the Second World War.
Trump's order
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had recommended, and President Trump had 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." He added: "The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Judgement day for Hasan has finally come." According to Telle, Trump approved the sentence on Friday, with the Pentagon announcing it on Monday.
What happened at Fort Hood
In November 2009, Hasan, then an Army psychiatrist, walked into the Fort Hood medical readiness building carrying two guns and several magazines of ammunition, shouted "Allahu Akbar" and opened fire on soldiers waiting for medical tests and vaccines. Thirteen people were killed and 32 wounded. Hasan was shot and left paralysed from the waist down. At trial, where he represented himself, he told jurors he had "switched sides" in what he called America's war with Islam. Prosecutors said he did not want to go on an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan. He was convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder, and sentenced to death in 2013. The Department of Defense classed the attack as workplace violence rather than terrorism.
Could it be delayed?
Trump's approval sets procedural steps in motion, but Hasan could put them on hold, potentially for years, by filing a habeas corpus appeal in the civilian federal court system, according to an article published in May in the magazine Army Lawyer.
Firing squads in the US
The Justice Department announced earlier this year that it would adopt firing squads as a permitted method of execution as the Trump administration moves to speed up capital punishment cases. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the previous administration had "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." At least 144 civilian prisoners have been executed by shooting in America since 1608, nearly all of them in Utah, and only four since capital punishment resumed in 1977. The first of those, Gary Gilmore, waived his appeals and replied "Let's do it" when asked for his last words, and South Carolina executed Brad Sigmon this way in March 2025. Five states currently allow the method: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah.
