The Pentagon announced that former Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting that killed 13 people and wounded others, will be executed by firing squad. The execution, if carried out, would mark the first U.S. military execution in more than 60 years.
According to ABC News, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended the execution and President Donald Trump approved it. The time and place of the execution have not yet been announced, the outlet reported. Hasan is one of four death-row inmates currently in the Army justice system, per the same report.
Accounts differ on which official will ultimately set the logistics. CNN reported that Pentagon press secretary Sean Parnell said Hegseth will set the time and place of the execution, while NBC News reported that Acting Army Secretary Adam R. Telle will make that determination.
What Happened at Fort Hood in 2009
On Nov. 5, 2009, Hasan, then an Army psychiatrist, opened fire at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Fort Hood, killing 12 soldiers and one civilian before he was shot, severely wounded and arrested, the ABC News report states. CNN reported that Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the attack. A military court convicted Hasan of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder, sentencing him to death in 2013, according to the same ABC News account.
Hasan was sentenced to death following a court-martial at Fort Hood in 2013. A revised opinion from the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces appears in a filing in the U.S. Supreme Court docket.
A Method Not Used Since World War II
If carried out, the execution would be notable not only for ending a decades-long gap in military executions but for the method used. NBC News reported that it would mark the first time the U.S. military has executed someone by firing squad since World War II, when Army Pvt. Eddie Slovik was put to death by firing squad in 1945, per the same outlet's reporting. The military has not executed any service member since 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged, according to both ABC News and NBC News.
The president can commute a military death sentence.
Army's Broader Execution Plans
Hasan's case does not exist in isolation. The Army has been quietly preparing to carry out executions of all four of its death-row inmates if ordered to do so by the president, ABC News reported in earlier coverage. An internal plan issued in February, dubbed Operation Resolute Justice, directs Army officials to coordinate with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to transfer condemned prisoners to the federal execution facility in Terre Haute, Indiana, according to the outlet's reporting.
At the time that plan surfaced, an Army spokesperson said the service had not received a specific presidential order and described the planning as standard preparation, the same ABC News report noted. Separately, the Justice Department announced steps in April to speed up executions nationally, including expanding approved methods to include death by firing squad, per that reporting.
Another of the Army's four death-row inmates, Ronald Gray, was convicted in 1988 on charges including two murders, attempted murder and three counts of rape, according to ABC News. Gray was an Army death-row inmate whose execution President George W. Bush approved in July 2008, the outlet reported.
