For the first time in 65 years, a man will die by firing squad for murdering 13 of his fellow soldiers

• The US military has approved the execution of Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009.

• Hasan is expected to be executed by firing squad, which would be the military's first execution in 65 years.

• No execution date has been set, with the Secretary of the Army to determine when and where it will take place.

In 2009, Nidal Hasan was an Army psychiatrist stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, the same base where soldiers came to him seeking help processing the trauma of war. On the morning of 5 November that year, he walked into the base's Soldier Readiness Centre, where soldiers were preparing for deployment, and opened fire.

By the time it was over, 13 people were dead and more than 30 others wounded. Among the dead was Private First Class Francheska Velez, who was pregnant at the time and reportedly begged for her unborn child's life before she was killed.

Investigators later found that Hasan had exchanged emails with Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric and senior figure in al-Qaeda, in the period before the attack. He was taken into custody after being shot and wounded by a civilian police officer at the scene.

A military jury convicted Hasan in 2013 and sentenced him to death. He has spent the years since held at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, as his case moved through a long chain of appeals. That process reached its end in April 2025, when his final legal challenge was rejected, clearing the way for his execution to proceed.

This week, the Pentagon confirmed that President Donald Trump has approved a recommendation from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to carry out Hasan's execution by firing squad. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the decision, saying the Secretary of the Army will now determine the time and place.

If carried out, it will be the United States military's first execution in 65 years. The last time the military executed one of its own was in 1961, when a soldier was hanged for the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl.

Firing squads themselves are rare in American capital punishment more broadly; South Carolina used the method three times in 2025, the first use of a firing squad anywhere in the country since 2010.

Hasan is one of only four prisoners currently held on military death row. No date has yet been set for his execution.

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