US President Donald Trump has ordered the execution by firing squad of former Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, who carried out a shooting that killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. The news was announced by a Pentagon spokesperson.
According to Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, the execution order was issued on the recommendation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and approved by the president. Hasan will be put to death by firing squad.
Parnell said the time and location of the execution will be decided by the Secretary of the Army. In a statement posted on X on Monday, he wrote: "Judgment day for Hasan has finally arrived."
Hasan, a US citizen of Palestinian descent, will become the first US service member to be executed by the American military in more than 60 years.
In 2013, a military jury convicted Hasan on 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted murder after he opened fire with a handgun at a medical facility on the Texas military base. He was sentenced to death in August of that year.
The attack killed 12 unarmed active-duty service members and one retired service member, and wounded 32 others. Police arrested Hasan at the scene, where he had been shot and partially paralyzed.
The shooting occurred a few weeks before Hasan was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan. At his court-martial, he said his actions were intended to stop US soldiers from going to Afghanistan to kill fellow Muslims, and he offered almost no defense.
In April, the Trump administration added execution by firing squad to the list of permitted methods of execution, alongside lethal gas and electrocution.
Executions in the US military are extremely rare and can only be approved by the president under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. If the order is carried out, Hasan will be the first US service member executed since 1961.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the 1961 execution was carried out by hanging. The center says the most recent known firing squad execution in the US military took place in November 1945, using muskets.
