The United States Army is set to execute former Army Major and psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan by firing squad for the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, in which 13 people were killed and 32 others injured. President Donald Trump approved the execution following a recommendation from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, marking the first U.S. military execution in more than six decades. Hasan was convicted by a military jury in 2013 and sentenced to death after being found guilty of premeditated murder.Hasan opened fire at a medical facility at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009, targeting soldiers who were preparing for deployment. The attack lasted several minutes and became one of the deadliest shootings at a U.S. military installation. Hasan, who was shot and paralysed from the chest down by a responding police officer, admitted during his court-martial that he was responsible for the attack. His appeals were eventually exhausted after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review his case in 2025.The execution is scheduled for December 3, 2026, at Fort Hood, according to the Army. If carried out, it will be the first U.S. military execution since 1961 and the first military firing-squad execution since 1945. The case has attracted renewed attention because executions by firing squad are extremely rare in the United States, while Hasan’s punishment comes more than 17 years after the attack that claimed the lives of 13 people.
