The U.S. military is set to carry out its first execution in 65 years. President Donald Trump has approved a firing squad execution for former Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, the psychiatrist who killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage, officials announced this week.

Acting Army Secretary Adam R. Telle confirmed Hasan will be put to death at Fort Hood, Texas, on Dec. 3 at 1 p.m. local time — the same post where he opened fire on fellow soldiers 17 years ago. It would mark the first U.S. military execution since 1961 and the first carried out by firing squad since World War II.

A Decades-Old Case Reaches Its End

On Nov. 5, 2009, Hasan, then an Army psychiatrist, walked into a Fort Hood processing center, shouted "Allahu Akbar" and opened fire on unarmed soldiers preparing for deployment, killing 13 — including a pregnant soldier — and wounding 32 more. A military jury convicted him in 2013 on 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted murder and sentenced him to death. His final legal appeal was rejected in April 2025, clearing the path for execution, though it still required presidential sign-off under military law.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth formally asked Trump last September to sign the death warrant, and the administration added firing squad as an authorized military execution method this past April, alongside electrocution and gas asphyxiation. Trump approved the firing squad method for Hasan's case on Oct. 3.

"Judgement day for Hasan has finally come," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said.

Hegseth had previously pushed hard for the outcome, telling reporters: "This savage terrorist deserves the harshest lawful punishment for his 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood. The victims and survivors deserve justice without delays."

The commandant of the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks will oversee the execution. A Joint Terrorism Task Force review years ago found Hasan "was not involved in terrorist activities or terrorist planning" beyond the attack itself, despite prosecutors arguing at trial that he acted out of opposition to his own deployment and a belief he was waging jihad. Hasan represented himself at his 2013 court-martial and offered no defense.

What's next: Hasan retains the right to file a habeas corpus petition in the civilian federal court system, a maneuver legal observers say could delay the execution for months or even years if filed before December. Barring such an appeal succeeding, Hasan would become the first U.S. service member executed since Army Pvt. John A. Bennett was hanged in 1961, and the first American service member executed by firing squad since 1945.