US President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of former US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.
The decision was announced by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, who said US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had recommended death by firing squad and Trump subsequently approved the recommendation.
Parnell said the Secretary of the Army would determine the time and location for the execution.
Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted by a military jury in 2013 on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder over the November 5, 2009, attack.
The shooting occurred at the military installation then known as Fort Hood, where soldiers were undergoing processing for deployment. Hasan opened fire inside the facility, killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in one of the deadliest attacks ever carried out on a US military installation.
Following the court-martial, Hasan was sentenced to death and has remained on military death row.
Trump’s approval does not mean the execution will take place immediately. No execution date has been announced, as the Army must complete the required administrative and legal procedures before the sentence can be carried out.
The Secretary of the Army is expected to determine when and where the execution will take place, while further legal proceedings could also affect the timeline.
If carried out, Hasan’s execution would mark the first execution by the US military since 1961, when Army soldier John A. Bennett was executed by hanging at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. It would also mark the first US military execution by firing squad in decades.
The development has renewed attention on the US military’s death-penalty system and the separate legal procedures governing military convictions and executions.
Hasan’s case has remained particularly notable because he was an Army medical officer and psychiatrist at the time of the attack. The shooting also prompted renewed scrutiny of security procedures at military installations and the handling of personnel preparing for overseas deployment.
For the families of those killed and wounded in the 2009 attack, Trump’s approval represents another major stage in a case that has remained unresolved for more than 17 years.
However, with no execution date yet announced, attention will now shift to the Army’s next steps in determining when and where the sentence will be carried out.