Trump clears way for Fort Hood terrorist to face Army firing squad nearly 17 years after massacre

President Donald Trump has cleared the way for the Fort Hood terrorist to face an Army firing squad, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced Monday, nearly 17 years after a deadly rampage.

"Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended — and President Donald J. Trump has approved — death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan, the jihadist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009," Parnell wrote on X. "He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting 'Allahu Akbar' during the attack. "

Nidal Malik Hasan, a former army officer, killed 13 people and wounded 32 others in the 2009 attack at Fort Hood, shouting "Allahu Akbar" as he opened fire.

Where the death penalty has been used before and since that attack, Hasan's death, if carried out, will mark the first time a president has successfully signed off on a U.S. military execution since 1961, a penalty reserved for members of the U.S. military as the gravest use of a court-marshal under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

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Pvt. John Bennett was last executed by hanging on April 13, 1961, after he attempted to murder an 11-year-old girl in Austria. President George W. Bush also approved of a military execution but was stopped by a federal court in 2008.

In Hasan's case, he took a pistol and a 0.357 revolver with him to a mosque where he attended noon prayers. He then drove to a a soldier readiness processing facility, an administrative building, full of what Hasan knew were going to be unarmed soldiers. After shouting "Allahu Akbar," Hasan unloaded into "the greatest density of soldiers," according to witness statements.

"I shot to kill," Hasan told the Sanity Board report. 

Hasan was eventually detained after engaging in a fire fight with law enforcement, sustaining multiple gun wounds. He was apprehended and rushed to intensive care. According to the sanity report, he denied experiencing depressive, manic, psychotic, anxiety or cognitive symptoms during the attack.

Hasan was court marshaled four years later and sentenced to death.

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"In Hasan's sentencing, lead prosecutor Col. Michael Mulligan rested the government's case on the morning of Aug. 27, after two days of emotional testimony from surviving widows and parents of some of those murdered, Nov. 5, 2009," the Army's press release stated.

"One of the witnesses, Joleen Cahill, said her husband, retired Chief Warrant Officer Michael Cahill, had given his life in an effort to stop Hasan. She spoke of the devastation experienced by her family in the time following the shooting."

As a part of the press release, the Ford Hood Public Affairs Office explained that Hasan's case would be automatically appealed, a part of the process for any death sentence.

"Given that the death sentence was imposed, the military justice system requires this case to be automatically appealed to the U.S. Army Criminal Court of Appeals and then to the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces," the press release added. 

After a court upheld the death sentence in early 2025, representation for Hasan appealed to the Supreme Court, citing procedural objections to how the trial was run, but that review was denied. 

In the time since, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recommended the execution. With President Trump's approval, the Army secretary will set the execution's time and place, Parnell, the Pentagon spokesperson, said.

"Judgment day for Hasan has finally come," Parnell wrote.