Nidal Malik Hasan, a former US Army major convicted of killing 13 people and attempting to kill 32 others at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, is scheduled to face a firing squad at the same military installation on December 3, 2026, in what would be the first US military execution in more than six decades.

Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle set the execution for 1pm Central Standard Time in an order dated October 6, following President Donald Trump’s approval of Hasan’s death sentence on October 2.

Also read: Muslim terrorist, Nidal Hasan, to pay for 13 US soldiers deaths, others 17yrs after

The planned Nidal Hasan execution represents an exceptionally rare step in the US military justice system.

If carried out, Hasan would become the first US service member executed since 1961, when Army Private John A. Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after being convicted of rape and attempted murder.

It would also mark the first US military execution by firing squad since 1945, when Army Private Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion during the Second World War.

The decision followed a recommendation from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, which Trump approved earlier this month.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the decision before the Army formally established the date and location.

“Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended, and President Donald J. Trump has approved, death by US Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan,” Parnell said in announcing the presidential decision.

The Army’s subsequent order states that the execution will be conducted at Fort Hood under Army Regulation 190-55.

The Commandant of the United States Disciplinary Barracks will serve as the execution officer.

Hasan was an Army psychiatrist when he opened fire on November 5, 2009, inside a medical facility at Fort Hood, where service members were undergoing processing before deployment.

Thirteen people were killed and 32 others were wounded in the attack.

The shooting became one of the most devastating attacks on a US military installation. Hasan was wounded and paralysed after military police intervened and arrested him.

The Army charged Hasan with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

A military jury convicted him on all counts in August 2013 and unanimously sentenced him to death. He was also dismissed from the Army and stripped of his pay and allowances.

During his court-martial, Hasan represented himself and did not dispute that he had carried out the shooting.

In his opening statement, he acknowledged his role while presenting the attack through his own ideological justification.

“The evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter,” Hasan told the court. He also said, “I was on the wrong side, and I then switched sides.”

Prosecutors argued that Hasan had deliberately targeted soldiers preparing for overseas deployment.

Hasan, however, said the attack was connected to his opposition to US military operations involving Muslim countries and described himself during the trial as having sided with Muslim insurgents.

The court-martial eventually produced one of the most consequential capital convictions in the modern history of the US military.

The death sentence then entered an unusually long appeals process, delaying any prospect of execution for more than a decade.

The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces affirmed Hasan’s conviction and death sentence in 2024.

Hasan subsequently asked the US Supreme Court to review his case, but the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal in March 2025.

That decision cleared the way for the presidential review required before a military death sentence can be carried out. It did not necessarily eliminate every possible legal avenue, however.

Reports indicate that Hasan could still seek collateral relief through a federal habeas corpus petition, potentially creating another route for delaying the execution.

The location of the scheduled execution carries particular significance. Hasan is due to be executed at Fort Hood, the Texas Army installation where the 2009 attack occurred.

The base has since been renamed Fort Cavazos and later reverted to the Fort Hood name in 2025.

The installation remains one of the largest military posts in the United States, making the decision to conduct the execution there especially notable given the history of Hasan’s case.

Military executions are governed by a separate legal framework from ordinary civilian executions.

Presidential approval is required for a death sentence imposed under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, contributing to the rarity of such executions.

The case also comes as execution methods remain under renewed scrutiny in the United States.

While lethal injection has traditionally been the principal method used in American executions, some jurisdictions have authorised alternatives, including firing squads, amid disputes over lethal-injection drugs and execution procedures.

For the US military, however, the planned execution is more than a question of method.

It would revive a form of punishment that has effectively been dormant within the armed forces for generations.

The gap since 1961 underscores just how exceptional the case is. The Army itself records Bennett’s hanging as the last execution of a service member, meaning Hasan’s scheduled execution would end a period of more than 65 years without a completed military execution.

The long delay has also meant that the Fort Hood shooting remains a painful chapter for survivors and the families of those killed.

The scheduled date now brings the case back into national focus, more than 17 years after the attack and more than 13 years after Hasan was sentenced to death.

For the Army, the December 3 order represents the latest step in a case that has travelled from one of the darkest moments in Fort Hood’s history through military trial, automatic appeals, Supreme Court review and presidential approval.

Whether the Nidal Hasan execution ultimately takes place as scheduled will depend on the outcome of any remaining legal challenges.

Also read: Muslim terrorist, Nidal Hasan, to pay for 13 US soldiers deaths, others 17yrs after

If no court intervenes, the 1pm execution at Fort Hood would constitute a historic moment for the US military, restoring capital punishment to the armed forces for the first time since 1961.