President Trump has given final approval to execute Nidal Hasan, the former Army major who gunned down 13 people and wounded 32 others at Fort Hood in 2009, by military firing squad. The decision, recommended by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and confirmed by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, clears the way for a death sentence that has stood since Hasan's 2013 conviction but has been tied up in appeals for more than a decade. Hasan opened fire inside the base's Soldier Readiness Processing Center while shouting "Allahu Akbar," later telling the court he acted in retaliation for U.S. military operations in Muslim countries. He represented himself at trial, telling jurors outright that he was the shooter.

Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle has now set the execution for December 3 at Fort Hood, with the commandant of the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks overseeing the process. It would mark the first U.S. military execution since 1961 and the first carried out by firing squad since World War II, a method more commonly associated in recent years with a handful of state-level executions in South Carolina. Hasan has been held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, since his conviction, and his final legal challenge was rejected in April 2025, stripping away his last major avenue to block the sentence. Pentagon officials framed the approval as long-delayed justice for the victims, with Parnell declaring simply, "Judgment day for Hasan has finally come."