courts

Trump Approves Firing Squad as Army Schedules Hasan’s Execution

The Army set Hasan’s firing-squad execution for Dec. 3; a civilian court challenge could delay it.

Debate level · 43 / 100 mixed
Source tone · 88 / 100
By The Bias2-min read12 outlets · 16 reportsPublished

Based on reports up to .

New here? Turn on Claims Mode to see where each claim comes from.

Claims Mode is on. Select any highlighted passage to see the reporting behind it.

An empty military courtroom with a closed case file on the judge’s bench.AI illustration
AI-generated illustration. It does not show the actual events.
In a rush? Get the brief
  1. President Trump approved the Army’s firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who was sentenced to death for killing 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting; an Army memo lists Dec. 3 at Fort Hood, subject to further legal requirements.
  2. The article centers on whether the execution can proceed after presidential approval, with required appellate and legality reviews still pending, alongside a wider debate over the Trump administration’s expansion of capital punishment and criticism from death-penalty opponents.
  3. If carried out, Hasan’s death would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961 and the first military firing-squad execution since World War II, underscoring a broader federal push to use more execution methods.
  4. Hasan could pursue a federal habeas corpus challenge that may delay the scheduled execution for years; otherwise, the remaining military legal reviews must be completed before it can occur.

The key facts, in one minute. Turn on Claims Mode to see who reported each claim, here or in the app. Get the app

In this story · 3 parts

An Army memo lists Nidal Malik Hasan’s execution for Dec. 3 at 1 p.m. CDT at Fort Hood in Central Texas. The listed execution cannot proceed unless military law’s additional requirements—appellate review and a final legality judgment—are completed.

According to Sean Parnell, President Donald Trump approved Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recommendation that Hasan be executed by a U.S. Army firing squad. Military law requires presidential approval before a death sentence imposed through a court-martial can be carried out. The approval does not by itself permit an execution because the additional legal requirements must also be met.

13Hasan killed 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood shootingParnell said Hasan wounded 32 others during the attack.

Hasan was sentenced to death by a military jury in a 2013 court-martial and is one of four prisoners on death row in the U.S. military justice system. If carried out, his execution would be the U.S. military’s first since 1961. It would also be the military’s first firing-squad execution since the end of World War II.

The Supreme Court declined Hasan’s petition to hear an appeal of his conviction on March 31, 2025. That action concerned his petition to appeal the conviction; appellate review and a final legality judgment remain requirements before an execution can proceed. A possible habeas corpus proceeding in the civilian federal court system would be a separate avenue. Army Lawyer magazine said that, if Hasan pursues such a proceeding, it could delay the listed execution for years.

Capital-punishment policy

Hegseth said the severity of Hasan’s Fort Hood mass shooting warranted the decision. He said Hasan deserved the harshest punishment permitted by law and that victims and survivors deserved justice without delay.

The approval comes amid a broader Trump administration push for capital punishment. In April, the Justice Department said it would move to expand methods used to carry out federal death sentences, including firing squads, electrocution and lethal gas. That announcement concerned federal death sentences, while Hasan’s death sentence was imposed through the military justice system and a firing squad is the method approved for him. A Trump executive order sets out the administration’s stated rationale for its broader capital-punishment policy: capital punishment is essential to deterring and punishing people who commit the most heinous crimes and lethal violence against Americans.

According to The Independent, Death Penalty Action argued that Trump “particularly values the power to kill” and described the approval as a political distraction and an attempt to address what it called his record-low approval ratings. The execution remains contingent on the legal requirements described above.

Sources

16 reports from 12 outletsFrom Daily Mail, BBC, The Independent and 9 more

How this story was made. Drafted with AI from 16 reports by 12 outlets. Each highlighted line in Claims Mode links to the reporting behind it. Debate level shows how sharply the positions reported in a story conflict. Source tone shows how much of our account rests on checkable facts and on-record quotes rather than interpretation. Both are scored by our model from our account of the coverage, out of 100, as in the app. How we make stories · Corrections · Spotted an error? Tell us

Keep reading

Latest in Courts

More from Courts   All of today’s stories