Pentagon to execute convicted Fort Hood mass shooter Nidal Hasan by firing squad

The Pentagon announced Monday that Nidal Hasan, who was sentenced to death for the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, will be executed by firing squad, marking the first U.S. military execution in more than 60 years.

The shooting left 13 people dead and wounded 32 others.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended the execution, and it was approved by President Donald Trump.

The time and place of the execution have not yet been announced, but Army policy outlines that executions must happen within 150 days of the president approving it, but no sooner than 60 days.

On Nov. 5, 2009, Hasan, then an Army psychiatrist, opened fire at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at the Fort Hood military base, killing 12 soldiers and one civilian before he was shot, severely wounded and arrested.

Hasan was convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder and sentenced to death in 2013. He was sent to a military detention center at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

He is one of four death row inmates in the Army justice system.

The announcement of his execution comes after News reported in June that the Army had been planning military executions, according to internal documents and officials familiar with the matter.

The plan, dubbed “Operation Resolute Justice” and issued internally in February, directed Army officials to coordinate with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to transfer condemned prisoners from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to the federal execution facility in Terre Haute, Indiana, where the Justice Department carried out a series of non-military federal executions during Trump’s first term.

Army regulation dictates that at least two media outlets should be selected to witness the execution. 

The military has not executed a service member since 1961, when Pvt. John Bennett was put to death after being convicted of the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl in Austria.