Hasan, the former Army major convicted of the 2009 Fort Hood massacre, is set to be put to death by firing squad on December 3 at 1 p.m. local time at Fort Hood, Texas, 63 days after President Trump’s approval, Hegseth said. A Pentagon official told The Hill the execution will be livestreamed, which would make it the first legal execution ever broadcast live in the United States; the last public execution in the country was in 1936.
It would be the first US military execution in more than 60 years and the first by firing squad since World War II, when Pvt. Edward Donald Slovik was executed in France on January 31, 1945, for desertion. Hasan is one of four people on military death row, held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Trump approved Hegseth’s recommendation for the execution, and Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle selected the firing squad under a 2023 Army regulation requiring execution 60 to 150 days after presidential approval. December 3 was chosen because it is a Thursday, the same day of the week Hasan carried out the attack, and the 1 p.m. time matches when he opened fire, Hegseth said. “We’re going to make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” he said.
In November 2009, Hasan, then an Army psychiatrist, opened fire with a personal handgun at the Fort Hood processing center, killing 12 soldiers and one civilian and injuring 32 others, the deadliest mass shooting ever on a US military installation. A military jury found him guilty on all 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder in August 2013 and sentenced him to death; his appeals ended in April 2025 when the Supreme Court denied his final petition.
The execution could still be derailed if Hasan files a habeas corpus appeal in federal court.