Trump Orders Firing Squad Execution for Fort Hood Shooter

President Donald Trump has given formal approval for the U.S. military to put Nidal Hasan to death by firing squad, Reuters reported. Hasan, who once served as an Army psychiatrist, carried out a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, that left 13 people dead and 32 others wounded.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell made the announcement, saying an Army firing squad will carry out the sentence, according to The Hill. Hasan was found guilty of the killings at trial and received a death sentence, which until now had not been carried out.

The decision sets up an event without recent precedent. No one has been executed by the U.S. military in more than six decades -- the last such execution took place in 1961, the BBC reported. A firing squad has not been used by the military since the Second World War. Officials have characterized the Fort Hood shooting as the deadliest attack on an American military installation that did not occur in combat. A date for the execution has not been included in the announcements described in available reporting.

The context

Hasan opened fire at Fort Hood in 2009 while serving in the Army as a psychiatrist. Thirteen people died and 32 more were injured in the attack, which officials have described as the most lethal non-combat incident ever at a U.S. military base. He was later convicted and sentenced to death, but the sentence remained unexecuted for years.

Military executions in the United States are rare. The armed forces have not carried one out since 1961, and the firing squad as a method has not been used by the military since World War II. Trump's order, announced through the Pentagon, moves Hasan's long-standing death sentence toward being carried out and specifies the method. Presidential involvement reflects the president's role in approving such sentences, with Trump personally signing off on this one.

Why it matters

If carried out, this would end a gap of more than 60 years without a U.S. military execution, and it would revive a method -- the firing squad -- the military has not used since the 1940s. The decision carries legal, military and political weight: it involves one of the most widely remembered attacks on American service members, a death sentence that sat unexecuted for years, and a direct presidential order setting both the outcome and the method. Families of the 13 people killed and the 32 wounded have waited since 2009 for the sentence's resolution.

What’s next

The timing of the execution was not specified in the reporting available, and it remains unclear what procedural or legal steps, if any, stand between the president's order and the sentence being carried out. Watch for the Pentagon to announce scheduling details and for any legal challenges Hasan's representatives may pursue. How the Army prepares to conduct its first execution in decades is also an open question.