President Donald Trump has cleared the way for Nidal Malik Hasan to face a U.S. Army firing squad, nearly 17 years after the Fort Hood jihadist murdered 13 and wounded 32 unarmed American soldiers.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced Monday that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recommended the sentence and that Trump approved it. The Army secretary will set the time and place. If carried out, it would mark the first U.S. military execution since 1961.

Fox News reported the decision ends years of legal delay after Hasan’s court-martial death sentence, automatic appeals, an early 2025 court uphold, and a denied Supreme Court review.

Parnell put the stakes in plain terms on X.

"Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended, and President Donald J. Trump has approved, death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan, the jihadist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009."

He added that Hasan killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting “Allahu Akbar.” Then came the line that closed the announcement: “Judgment day for Hasan has finally come.”

Hasan’s rampage left 13 dead and 32 wounded

On Nov. 5, 2009, the former Army officer took a pistol and a.357 revolver to noon prayers at a mosque, then drove to a soldier readiness processing facility at Fort Hood. He opened fire on unarmed soldiers inside the administrative building.

A firefight with law enforcement ended the attack. Hasan took multiple gunshot wounds and was rushed to intensive care. Thirteen people died. Thirty-two more were wounded.

Breitbart noted the attack was later described as Al-Qaeda-inspired. Hasan was court-martialed four years afterward and sentenced to death under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military’s gravest penalty for its own members.

A sanity board report quoted Hasan saying, “I shot to kill.” The same report said he denied depressive, manic, psychotic, anxiety, or cognitive symptoms during the attack. Witness statements described him unloading into the greatest density of soldiers.

"I shot to kill."

That record left little room for the soft excuses that often follow mass killings. He targeted unarmed troops. He said he meant to kill. He shouted a jihadist battle cry while he did it.

Appeals dragged on for more than a decade

Because a death sentence was imposed, the military justice system required automatic appeals first to the U.S. Army Criminal Court of Appeals and then to the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. Fort Hood Public Affairs made that process clear at the time of sentencing.

An Army press release described the sentencing phase: lead prosecutor Col. Michael Mulligan rested the government’s case on the morning of Aug. 27 after two days of emotional testimony from surviving widows and parents of those murdered on Nov. 5, 2009.

One witness, Joleen Cahill, said her husband, retired Chief Warrant Officer Michael Cahill, had given his life trying to stop Hasan. She spoke of the devastation her family endured afterward.

A court upheld the death sentence in early 2025. Hasan’s lawyers then sought Supreme Court review, citing procedural objections to how the trial was run. The Court denied review. The conviction and sentence stood.

Trump has pressed states on failed executions before, and the Fort Hood case now moves from paper judgments to an actual method and schedule under Army control.

First successful presidential sign-off since 1961

The Washington Examiner reported that Trump’s approval followed Hegseth’s recommendation and frames the moment as long-delayed judgment. Parnell’s statement made the chain of command explicit: Hegseth recommended, Trump approved, and the Army secretary will set the time and place.

The last U.S. military execution was Pvt. John Bennett, hanged on April 13, 1961, after he attempted to murder an 11-year-old girl in Austria. President George W. Bush approved a military execution in 2008, but a federal court stopped it. No president has successfully signed off on one since Bennett.

Just the News underscored that this would be the first military death sentence carried out since 1961 if the Army completes the process. That gap of more than six decades shows how rarely the system reaches this final step, and how long victims’ families have waited in this case.

Death by firing squad is the method Trump approved. The Army secretary holds the remaining authority over scheduling and location. No date has been announced.

Tough mandatory penalties have been a recurring Trump theme on crime and fraud. Here the penalty is the military’s ultimate one, applied to a service member who turned his weapons on his own side.

What the record shows about motive and method

Hasan was a former Army officer stationed at Fort Hood. He chose a readiness facility packed with unarmed soldiers. He brought two firearms. He shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he fired. He later told evaluators he shot to kill and denied the mental-health symptoms that sometimes cloud other cases.

The New York Post detailed that Hasan killed 12 U.S. service members and one civilian and wounded 32 others. The human cost is not abstract. Widows and parents testified. One husband died trying to stop the shooter. Families described lasting devastation.

The Department of War advanced the request for the execution. Hegseth made the recommendation. Trump signed off. Parnell announced it. The legal path, court-martial, death sentence, automatic appeals, 2025 uphold, Supreme Court denial, is complete on the conviction side. What remains is the Army’s scheduling authority.

Other recent enforcement moves show the same preference for finality over endless process. In the Hasan case, process already ran its full course. The sentence was upheld. Review was denied. Approval for the method has now been given.

Why the delay mattered to the victims’ side

Nearly 17 years separate the Nov. 5, 2009, massacre from Monday’s announcement. The court-martial came four years after the attack. Sentencing included two days of testimony from survivors’ families. Automatic appeals followed because the death penalty requires them. A court reaffirmed the sentence in early 2025. The Supreme Court declined further review.

Only then did the executive branch move to the method of execution. Firing squad is now authorized. The Army secretary will choose when and where. Families who sat through the trial and the years of appeals finally have a presidential decision that matches the jury’s verdict.

Parnell’s words left little ambiguity about the administration’s view of the case. He called Hasan a convicted terrorist and a jihadist. He recited the body count. He said judgment day had come.

"Judgment day for Hasan has finally come."

That is the official line from the Pentagon spokesman after the president’s approval. It matches the facts already locked in by the military courts: 13 dead, 32 wounded, a death sentence, exhausted appeals, and a denied high-court petition.

Debates over presidential military authority continue in Congress, yet this decision sits inside the established court-martial system and the executive’s role in carrying out a final sentence already imposed and upheld.

The Fort Hood attack was not a workplace dispute or a sudden breakdown. Hasan prepared, armed himself, chose a target rich with unarmed soldiers, announced his cause in the act, and later confirmed he shot to kill. The military justice system convicted him, sentenced him to death, and then spent years confirming that result. Trump’s approval of the firing squad does not invent a new punishment. It authorizes the one the courts already set.

Justice delayed is still justice owed, and this time the sentence matches the crime.