The Pentagon is preparing to ask President Donald Trump to authorize the execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army major convicted of carrying out the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, a senior Department of Defense official told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
If approved, it would be the first U.S. military execution in more than six decades. Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded 32 others in the attack.
Hasan entered Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Center armed with a semi-automatic pistol and opened fire on fellow service members preparing for deployment.
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Nidal Hasan is currently imprisoned in the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. ( Bell County Sheriff's Office via Getty Images)
During his subsequent trial, Hasan admitted to the shooting and claimed it was necessary to protect the "Islamic Empire" from American forces.
The Pentagon had categorized the massacre as an act of "workplace violence," a decision that drew sharp criticism from lawmakers, victims’ families, and national security experts. They argued it obscured the ideological and terrorist motivations behind the attack.
In 2013, a military jury convicted Hasan and sentenced him to death.
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On Nov. 5, 2009, armed with a semi-automatic pistol, Nidal Hasan had opened fire inside the Soldier Readiness Center. (Getty)
He has been held on death row at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, ever since.
After years of appeals, Hasan's final legal challenge was rejected in April 2025, clearing the way for execution.
"I am 100 percent committed to ensuring the death penalty is carried out for Nidal Hasan," Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News Digital. "This savage terrorist deserves the harshest lawful punishment for his 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood. The victims and survivors deserve justice without delays."
Hasan is one of just four prisoners currently facing the death penalty under military jurisdiction.
Nidal Hasan was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The Army secretary has already recommended execution, and the Department of War is advancing the request.
Hasan, born in Arlington, Virginia, in 1970 to Palestinian immigrant parents, served nearly 20 years in the Army before reportedly embracing radical Islamist beliefs.
By the time he was stationed at Fort Hood in 2009, he had become outspoken in his opposition to U.S. military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, justifying suicide bombings as legitimate acts of war.