EXCLUSIVE: Hegseth To Seek Final Approval For Execution Of Convicted Fort Hood Shooter

The Department of War will ask President Donald Trump for final approval to execute the Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Hasan, a DOW official told the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation exclusively.

The execution, if approved by Trump, would be the first carried out by the military since 1961. Hasan, a former Army Major and psychiatrist turned radical Islamic terrorist, killed 13 people and wounded 32 others during his notorious rampage on the Army base in 2009.

“I am 100 percent committed to ensuring the death penalty is carried out for Nidal Hasan,” Hegseth exclusively told the DCNF. “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 currently imprisoned in the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Hasan lost his final appeal to his 2013 death sentence in April 2025, according to the San Antonio Express.

Jeffrey and Sheryll Pearson look at the portrait of their son, Army Pfc. Michael Pearson, before the Purple Heart and Defense of Freedom award ceremony on Fort Hood, Texas, April 10, 2015. The event honored the 13 people killed and more than 30 injured in a gunman’s 2009 shooting rampage on the base. U.S. Army photo by Daniel Cernero