US death Row inmate to be executed by firing squad for first time in 60 years

President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former US Army major convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, according to Metro.

The execution would be the US military’s first by firing squad since World War II and its first execution in more than 60 years. However, the report said appellate review and a final legal judgment were required before it could proceed.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, opened fire inside a crowded medical building at the Texas military base, killing 12 soldiers and one civilian and injuring more than 30 others. Soldiers had been waiting for medical checks and vaccinations before deployment. During his 2013 trial, Hasan admitted being the gunman and said he believed he was protecting Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to the BBC. He apologised for “any mistakes” he had made.

Hasan is one of four inmates on the US military’s death row, according to the report. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote on X that “judgment day for Hasan has finally come”. Metro reported that Pete Hegseth recommended execution by firing squad and that Trump approved the recommendation.

The case comes after Trump lifted the federal execution moratorium introduced under former President Joe Biden. Trump’s 2025 executive order described capital punishment as “an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens”.

Military executions operate under a separate legal system from state executions. Five states permit firing squads: South Carolina, Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah. South Carolina carried out its first firing-squad execution in 2025, when Brad Sigmon, convicted of a double murder in 2001, chose that method over lethal injection or the electric chair. It was the first execution by firing squad in the United States in 15 years.