Convicted Fort Hood Terrorist Learns His Fate as Trump Approves Firing Squad

The Pentagon says President Donald Trump has signed off on a plan to execute Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. Hasan has been on military death row for years after being found guilty of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others during the attack in Texas.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended that Hasan be put to death by firing squad. Trump approved that recommendation, moving the case closer to a possible execution. The Army still has to determine the exact date and location. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the development on social media and described the decision as the final stage in Hasan’s case.

“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 wrote.

He also referenced the death toll from the 2009 attack and Hasan’s statements during the shooting. “He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ during the attack,” Parnell wrote.

“The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Judgement day for Hasan has finally come.” The shooting happened on November 5, 2009, at Fort Hood, which has since been renamed Fort Cavazos.

Hasan opened fire inside a processing center where soldiers were preparing for deployment and handling medical and administrative requirements.

The attack killed 12 service members and one civilian employee. Dozens of others were injured before officers stopped the shooting.

Hasan was shot by responding police and survived, but the injuries left him paralyzed from the waist down.

His criminal case later moved through the military justice system. In 2013, a military jury convicted Hasan of 13 counts of premeditated murder.

He was also convicted on 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. Hasan acted as his own attorney during much of the trial and did not dispute that he had carried out the shooting.

He told the court that he believed his actions were connected to defending Islamist fighters overseas from U.S. military operations.

The military panel ultimately imposed the death penalty. Hasan was then transferred to the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he has remained while the mandatory appeals process continued.

Military executions are extremely uncommon in modern American history. The last execution carried out by the U.S. military occurred in 1961, when Army Private John Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth.

📸 Fans Are Loving These Karoline Leavitt Photos ➔

An Army firing-squad execution has not taken place since World War II. That last case involved Private Eddie Slovik, who was executed in France in 1945 after being convicted of desertion.

Army rules generally provide a window for carrying out an execution after presidential approval, although the exact schedule is determined by military officials.

That means Trump’s approval does not itself set an execution date. The Secretary of the Army must still formally establish when and where the sentence would be carried out.

If the execution proceeds as announced, Hasan’s case would become one of the most significant military death-penalty cases in decades. It would also bring a long-running legal process stemming from the Fort Hood attack much closer to its conclusion.