President Trump has approved death by firing squad for the man who killed 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, the Pentagon announced this week.
Quick Take
- Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell says Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recommended firing squad for Nidal Hasan, and President Trump approved it.
- Hasan was convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood attack that killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others.
- The execution would be the first U.S. military execution in more than 60 years.
- Idaho adopted firing squad as its primary execution method in 2026, adding context to the national conversation around this method.
Pentagon Confirms Trump Signed Off On The Method
The announcement came through a direct statement from the Pentagon’s top spokesman. Sean Parnell said Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recommended death by firing squad for Hasan, and President Trump approved the plan. The statement named both men clearly, leaving no ambiguity about who made the call or what method was chosen for the condemned former Army major.
Hasan was convicted by a military jury for the November 2009 attack at Fort Hood, Texas. He opened fire on fellow soldiers, killing 13 people and wounding dozens more in one of the deadliest attacks ever carried out on a U.S. military base. He has sat on military death row since his conviction, and his case has moved slowly through appeals for more than a decade.
A Method The Military Has Not Used In Decades
If carried out, this execution would mark the first time the U.S. military has put someone to death in more than 60 years. The last military execution happened in 1961, when a soldier was hanged. Firing squad as a military execution method goes back even further, to World War II, when the Army shot deserters and traitors under wartime rules that rarely apply today.
That history matters because it shows how rare this step actually is. Military executions already happen so infrequently that any single case draws attention. Choosing a method not used by the armed forces in generations adds another layer of weight to a decision already tied directly to the President and his defense secretary.
Why Firing Squad Is Back In The National Conversation
This decision does not happen in a vacuum. Idaho made national headlines in 2026 when it became the first state to name firing squad its primary method of execution, a shift driven by ongoing problems obtaining lethal injection drugs and botched procedures in other states. That state-level change put firing squad back into public conversation well before the Pentagon’s announcement about Hasan.
Firing squad remains a rare method of execution across American history. Researchers tracking executions since 1976 found it accounts for less than one percent of all cases carried out in the United States. Only Utah and South Carolina have used it in the modern era, which makes the Pentagon’s choice for Hasan stand out even more against that national backdrop.
Supporters of the method argue it offers a swift, reliable death compared to lethal injection protocols that have faced repeated legal challenges and documented complications in several states. Critics tend to focus on the symbolism and spectacle tied to firing squads. Either way, the Pentagon’s announcement puts the method squarely back into the national spotlight, this time tied to one of the most notorious attacks on American soldiers in modern history.
What happens next will likely involve further military legal procedure before any execution date is set. For now, the facts stand on their own: Secretary Hegseth recommended the method, President Trump approved it, and the man convicted of murdering 13 people at Fort Hood faces a sentence carried out in a way the military has not used in over six decades.
Sources:
idahostatesman.com, nypost.com
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