First firing-squad execution by military in 65 years in US, Trump gives go ahead

Former US Army officer Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 Americans and wounded 32 at Fort Hood in 2009. He was sentenced to death in 2013, after he admitted that he had switched sides and tried to protect Taliban fighters and other Muslims from US forces. He is now set to become the first US military prisoner executed since 1961, after President Donald Trump approved his execution by firing squad.

US President Donald Trump on Monday approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Malik Hasan, a former US Army psychiatrist who opened fire on dozens of American soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. The decision came after a recommendation from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, the Associated Press (AP) reported. This would mark the first execution of a US Army soldier by the US military since 1961.

In a post on X, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed the decision, writing, "Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended and President Donald Trump has approved death by US Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan. He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting 'Allahu Akbar' during the attack."

"The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Judgement day for Hasan has finally come," the Pentagon spokesperson added.

We will discuss the story of Hasan, who accepted that he had "switched sides" and argued that his actions were intended to protect Taliban fighters and other Muslims from US troops in Afghanistan, in detail, after understanding what a firing squad execution is and what its prominence is for the US.

WHAT IS THE FIRING SQUAD EXECUTION TRUMP IS REVIVING?

Executions are not new for the US. The country has put at least 29 prisoners to death in 2026 alone, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Centre (DPIC).

Death by firing squad, however, remains considerably rare. A firing squad is nothing but a group of armed people instructed to shoot a condemned prisoner simultaneously to carry out a death sentence.

According to the DPIC, five states currently permit execution by firing squad, those being Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah. Idaho made the firing squad its primary method of execution from July 2026, while the other four states retain other methods as their primary options.

Three people were put to death by firing squad in South Carolina in 2025, the first such executions in the US since 2010. Before that, only three people had been executed by firing squad since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, all in Utah. In total, six people have been executed by firing squad in the US since 1976, according to the DPIC.

What is rare is the execution of a member of the US military by the army itself. The last such execution — which was hanging the personnel — took place in 1961, when US Army Private John A Bennett was executed after being convicted of rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl in Austria. The last US military execution by firing squad came much earlier, in 1945, when Army Private Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion during World War II.

TRUMP USING FIRING SQUAD AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO LETHAL INJECTION EXECUTION

That said, firing squad executions are not limited to the military. Reuters reported that firing squad was among several methods of capital punishment recently added by the Trump administration to the list of permissible methods for federal crimes carrying the death penalty, alongside electrocution and gas asphyxiation. The expansion came partly amid difficulties in obtaining drugs for lethal injections, which have also faced problems during their administration.

Those difficulties were highlighted last week in Tennessee, where an attempt to execute death-row inmate Christa Pike by lethal injection failed. Two doses of the drug pentobarbital were administered, but problems with the intravenous lines caused the drug to seep into her tissue, leaving Pike with severe injuries. She was later placed on life support.

The Washington Post newspaper has further reported that Trump has long supported the death penalty. During his first term, the US Department of Justice resumed federal executions in 2020 after a nearly two-decade hiatus.

However, during his second term, his administration lifted a moratorium on federal executions and pushed for broader use of capital punishment.

NOW, WHO IS NIDAL MALIK HASAN, SET TO BE EXECUTED BY FIRING SQUAD

Nidal Malik Hasan is a former US Army psychiatrist sentenced to death for carrying out a mass shooting at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas back in November 5, 2009.

His parents immigrated to the US from Palestine, Hassan joined the US Army and trained as a psychiatrist. He worked with soldiers returning from combat deployments and was himself due to be deployed to Afghanistan shortly before the November 5, attack. According to Reuters, Hasan had expressed opposition to US military operations in Muslim countries and later described the shooting as retaliation for those actions.

On the morning of the attack, Hasan entered the Soldier Readiness Processing Centre at Fort Hood, where troops were undergoing medical processing before overseas deployments.

Armed with a semi-automatic handgun, he opened fire, killing twelve active-duty soldiers. A retired soldier working at the facility was killed, while 32 others were wounded, according to Reuters. Hasan was shot by military police while fleeing the scene and was left paralysed from the chest down.

At his 2013 court-martial, Hasan represented himself and largely did not contest that he was the shooter. He told the court that he had "switched sides" and sought to argue that his actions were intended to protect Taliban fighters and other Muslims from US troops in Afghanistan. He justified his actions by arguing that the US military was at war against Islam.

A military jury convicted him of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder and sentenced him to death on August 28, 2013. He was dismissed from the Army and his pay and allowances were stripped.

Hasan has remained on military death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, while his case went through years of appeals. The US Supreme Court declined to hear his final appeal in 2025. The execution date has not yet been set. The Secretary of the Army will determine the time and place.

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(Written by Shounak Sanyal)