What to know about the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday said the firing squad execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter, former Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, will be open to the public, a new revelation to the first U.S. military execution in over six decades.

Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist who opened fire at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009, killing 13 people, is set to be put to death on Dec. 3 at 1 p.m. local time at the same military base, according to the U.S. Army.

It would mark the first U.S. military execution in more than 60 years and first by firing squad since World War II. A Pentagon official told The Hill the execution will be live-streamed.

Here’s what to know:

The Fort Hood shooting

Hasan killed 12 soldiers and one civilian, and injured 32 others in November 2009 when he used a personal handgun to open fire at the Fort Hood processing center, where troops were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. It marks the deadliest mass shooting ever on a U.S. military installation.

During the shooting, he was heard shouting “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great.” The attack ended when he was shot four times and arrested by civilian security officers, becoming paralyzed from the waist down.

During his 2013 trial, Hasan acted as his own lawyer, saying in his opening statement that “the evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter.”

An American-born Muslim, Hasan said he had “switched sides” and carried out the shooting in response to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The incident came one month before the then-soldier was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan.

In August 2013 a military jury found Hasan guilty on all 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder, dismissing him from the Army and sentencing him to death. That ruling has since been tied up in an appeals process that finally ended in April 2025 when the Supreme Court denied his final petition.

Hasan is currently incarcerated in the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., one of just four people currently on military death row.

Hegseth’s stance

Hegseth has long made clear he wanted “the harshest lawful punishment” for Hasan, telling reporters in September 2025 that he had asked President Trump for final approval for the military execution.

“The victims and survivors deserve justice without delays,” he said in a statement to The Hill at the time.

Following Monday’s announcement that Trump had approved Hegseth’s recommendation, the Pentagon chief confirmed the execution had been set for Dec. 3 as it falls on a Thursday, the same day of the week Hasan had planned his attack.

“Of course we’re going to do it at Fort Hood. We’re going to do it on a Thursday, we’re going to do it at one o’clock, which is when he did it, and it’s going to be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad,” Hegseth told Real America’s Voice on the USS Abraham Lincoln Thursday.

“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” he added.

Current Army rules allow for at least two media outlets to be present for the execution, but no legal execution has ever been broadcast live in the U.S. The country’s last public execution was in 1936.

The current rules

Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle chose death by firing squad for Hasan after Trump approved Hegseth’s recommendation, in accordance with 2023 Army regulation on how to carry out military executions.

Under the current rules, the Army secretary decides the time, location and method, to take place no sooner than 60 and no later than 150 days after the president has approved the sentence.

In this case, Hasan’s execution is to be carried out 63 days after Trump’s approval.

It also states that “all lawful and feasible methods available” for executing prisoners will be presented to the official for consideration.

There is a small chance the execution could be derailed, as Hasan could delay it if he files a habeas corpus appeal in the federal courts.

The last military firing squad

The last American service member to be put to death by firing squad was Pvt. Edward Donald Slovik, convicted of deserting his unit twice in combat in France. He was executed in the country on Jan. 31, 1945.

At the time, Slovik’s execution method was unusual, as he was the only U.S. soldier to be put to death for that reason since the Civil War. Hanging was the preferred method for most of the known U.S. military executions during WW II, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Since then, the U.S. military has carried out only one other execution with the 1961 hanging of Pvt. John Bennett for the 1955 has been has been rape and attempted murder of an Austrian girl.

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