President Trump has greenlit a firing squad execution for Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the perpetrator of the 2009 Fort Hood massacre, moving to end a decades-long dormancy in military capital punishment.
The path toward the first military execution in more than 60 years has been cleared. President Donald Trump has officially approved the use of a firing squad to carry out the death sentence of Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan for the 2009 massacre at Fort Hood, Texas.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced the decision in a post on X, declaring, “Judgement day for Hasan has finally come.” The Army secretary is now tasked with determining the specific time and location for the execution.
In November 2009. Hasan. an Army psychiatrist. walked into a medical building at the installation where soldiers were gathered for routine checkups. Shouting “Allahu akbar,” the Arabic phrase for “God is great!”, he opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun. The assault left 13 people dead and wounded more than 30 others. During his trial. Hasan offered little defense. telling jurors he was a soldier who had “switched sides” to prevent his victims from deploying to Afghanistan to fight fellow Muslims.
While the President’s approval marks a significant procedural shift, the execution is not immediate. Hasan retains the right to file a habeas corpus appeal in civilian federal courts, a move that legal experts suggest could stall the process for years.
Capital punishment remains exceptionally rare within the U.S. military justice system. Only four men currently reside on the military’s death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The last service member executed by the military was Pvt. John Bennett, who was hanged in 1961 after being convicted of raping an 11-year-old girl. In 2008, then-President George W. Bush approved the execution of Army Spc. Ronald Gray, but a judge placed that order on hold; Gray remains imprisoned at Leavenworth.
President Trump. who oversaw the execution of 13 people between 2020 and 2021. has established himself as the most prolific president regarding the federal death penalty in over 130 years. His decision to authorize the firing squad comes just days after a failed lethal injection in Tennessee prompted that state’s governor to order a suspension of executions and an independent review. When asked if the recent issues with lethal injection would lead him to change his approach to capital punishment. Trump remarked that it was “an interesting situation. ” adding. “It shouldn’t be very difficult.”.
Nidal Malik Hasan Fort Hood Trump firing squad military execution death penalty