Wednesday, October 7, 2026 -President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former US Army major convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, according to Metro.
The execution would be the US military’s first by firing
squad since World War II and its first execution in more than 60 years.
However, the report said appellate review and a final legal judgment were
required before it could proceed.
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, opened fire inside a crowded
medical building at the Texas military base, killing 12 soldiers and one
civilian and injuring more than 30 others. Soldiers had been waiting for
medical checks and vaccinations before deployment. During his 2013 trial, Hasan
admitted being the gunman and said he believed he was protecting Muslims and
the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to the BBC. He apologised for “any
mistakes” he had made.
Hasan is one of four inmates on the US military’s death row,
according to the report. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote on X that
“judgment day for Hasan has finally come”. Metro reported that Pete Hegseth
recommended execution by firing squad and that Trump approved the
recommendation.
The case comes after Trump lifted the federal execution
moratorium introduced under former President Joe Biden. Trump’s 2025 executive
order described capital punishment as “an essential tool for deterring and
punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal
violence against American citizens”.
Military executions operate under a separate legal system
from state executions. Five states permit firing squads: South Carolina, Idaho,
Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah. South Carolina carried out its first
firing-squad execution in 2025, when Brad Sigmon, convicted of a double murder
in 2001, chose that method over lethal injection or the electric chair. It was
the first execution by firing squad in the United States in 15 years.
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