Nidal Malik Hasan

The backstory

Preparation

By the account in the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces’ 2024 opinion, Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, went to a gun shop in July 2009 and asked for “the most technologically advanced handgun on the market.”¹ He bought an FN 5.7 pistol, magazine extensions that held thirty rounds, and laser sights, and he returned repeatedly to buy more ammunition and magazines.¹ Beginning in October 2009 he practiced at a shooting range, became proficient at hitting targets at 100 yards, and asked an instructor how to practice speed loading.¹

That October he learned he would deploy to Afghanistan the next month.¹ A co-worker testified that he was reluctant to go and said, “They’ve got another thing coming if they think they are going to deploy me.”¹ In the two weeks before the attack he made seven to nine unscheduled visits to the Soldier Readiness Processing center, which a witness said served no apparent purpose.¹

The shooting

The Soldier Readiness Processing center was where soldiers received immunizations and medical clearance before deploying.¹³ In the early afternoon of Nov. 5, 2009, Hasan entered it carrying the pistol and nearly 400 rounds of concealed ammunition.¹ According to the court, he told a civilian data-entry clerk she was needed elsewhere. Once she left, he drew the weapon, yelled “Allahu Akbar!” and began shooting.¹

The court found that he used speed-reloading techniques, fired at soldiers fleeing through the front and back doors, and walked across the room shooting several soldiers in the back as they sought cover near the cubicles.¹ One witness testified that the gunfire went on “for what felt like an eternity.”¹

Hasan then left the building to pursue soldiers who had fled.¹ Outside, he refused a police order to drop his weapon, and in the exchange of fire a civilian police officer was shot several times. The court found that he stood over the wounded officer and tried to shoot her at point-blank range, but his weapon malfunctioned. Another officer shot him in the chest, and he was taken into custody.¹ He was left paralyzed from the waist down.¹

The victims

Thirteen people were killed: 12 soldiers and one civilian.¹¹⁴ They were Michael Grant Cahill, a civilian physician assistant; Maj. Libardo Eduardo Caraveo; Staff Sgt. Justin Michael DeCrow; Capt. John P. Gaffaney; Spc. Frederick Greene; Spc. Jason Dean Hunt; Staff Sgt. Amy Sue Krueger; Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka; Pfc. Michael S. Pearson; Capt. Russell Gilbert Seager; Pfc. Francheska Velez; Lt. Col. Juanita L. Warman; and Pfc. Kham See Xiong.¹⁶ Velez was pregnant, and her unborn child also died.¹⁶⁴

The appellate court counted 31 people wounded. Hasan was convicted of 32 attempted murders because he also fired at a civilian police officer who was not hit.¹

Trial and self-representation

Charges were referred to a general court-martial as a capital case on July 6, 2011.¹ Roughly two months before trial, Hasan chose to represent himself, and his detailed defense lawyers stayed on as standby counsel.¹⁵ The military judge, Col. Tara Osborn, repeatedly told him the decision was unwise but found his waiver of counsel knowing, intelligent and voluntary.¹²¹ An R.C.M. 706 board of psychiatrists, the military’s sanity board, had found that he had sufficient mental capacity to understand the proceedings.⁵

Hasan offered to plead guilty. The judge rejected his offers because Article 45(b) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice bars guilty pleas to offenses for which death may be adjudged.¹ He sought to argue that the war in Afghanistan was illegal and that he had acted in defense of others, including Taliban leader Mullah Omar. The military judge ruled that the defense failed as a matter of law.¹

In his opening statement, Hasan told the panel, “The evidence will clearly show I am the shooter.”¹ He said he had been “on the wrong side” of what he called a war on Islam, then “switched sides, and I made mistakes,” and he called himself “an imperfect Muslim.”¹ He presented no case, cross-examined few witnesses and made no closing argument.¹ On Aug. 23, 2013, the panel convicted him of 13 specifications of premeditated murder and 32 specifications of attempted premeditated murder.¹⁶¹

Why the panel chose death

A death sentence required a unanimous vote of the 13-officer panel.²¹ The government argued multiple murders as the aggravating factor, and the Army appeals court’s opinion connects the capital referral to the factor in R.C.M. 1004(c)(7)(J): that the accused was convicted in the same case of another murder under Article 118.²¹⁵

For sentencing, the government called nineteen witnesses, including three survivors and family members of those who were killed, and introduced photographs of the dead.⁵ The prosecutor, Col. Michael Mulligan, told the panel that Hasan “should not be punished for his religion, he should be punished for his hate.”⁸

Hasan presented no mitigation evidence and made no statement.⁵ His standby counsel asked to present mitigation over his objection. The judge denied the motion, saying a self-represented defendant “is the captain of his own ship.”²¹⁵ At his request, the judge instructed the panel to consider as mitigating factors his age, his service record, his awards and medals, his education, and his physical impairment and confinement to a wheelchair.⁵

On Aug. 28, 2013, after deliberating for less than two hours, the panel sentenced him to death, dismissal from the service and forfeiture of all pay and allowances.⁸ The Army Court of Criminal Appeals later held that the panel found “the aggravating factor and the aggravation evidence” substantially outweighed the mitigation, so the death sentence was authorized under R.C.M. 1004(b)(4)(C).⁵

Appeals

Review of a death sentence in the military is mandatory and cannot be waived.²¹ On Dec. 11, 2020, the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, sitting en banc, rejected all fourteen of his assigned errors and affirmed.⁵ It held that the judge did not err in letting him represent himself at trial and sentencing, and that forcing mitigation evidence on him over his objection would have violated his right to conduct his own defense.⁵ It also rejected his challenges to the venue and to two panel members.⁵

The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces affirmed unanimously on Sept. 6, 2023.²²⁰ On Hasan’s petition, it granted reconsideration in part on March 4, 2024, vacated that judgment and issued a new decision, again affirming.³¹ The court held that his waiver of counsel was voluntary and that Article 45(b)‘s bar on guilty pleas in capital cases is constitutional.¹ It assumed without deciding that closing a 34-minute hearing to the public was improper, but held that reversal would be a “windfall” and overruled an earlier precedent to the extent it required automatic reversal for such a closure.¹

Hasan petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for review, and the Court denied it on March 31, 2025.⁷¹⁹

The execution order

A military execution cannot proceed until the president “personally, affirmatively” approves the death sentence.²⁰ President Trump approved Hasan’s sentence on Oct. 2, 2026, following a recommendation from Defense Secretary Hegseth.¹²¹⁴ Army regulations require the execution to be set no sooner than 60 days and no later than 150 days after approval.¹²

In an order signed Oct. 6, acting Army Secretary Adam Telle set the execution for 1 p.m. on Dec. 3, 2026, at Fort Hood.¹⁴ The Army had earlier disclosed plans to move military death-row prisoners from Fort Leavenworth to the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, for execution.¹⁴ The Army and Pentagon have not said why they chose a firing squad, who will serve on it or what procedure it will follow.¹² Hegseth has said the military has not used a firing squad since World War II.¹³ The last military execution was the hanging of Army Pvt. John Bennett at Fort Leavenworth on April 13, 1961.⁸¹³

Hegseth said in an interview that the execution would be public, and on Oct. 8 Pentagon officials said it would be livestreamed.¹³

Personal backstory

Early life and education

Hasan was born Sept. 8, 1970, in Arlington, Virginia.²² His parents were immigrants of Palestinian descent.²²²³ He attended Virginia Tech.²²²³ Accounts of his degree and graduation year differ in the sources reviewed, and nothing about his childhood or family life is in the court record reviewed.

Army career

According to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, Hasan served as an enlisted soldier before serving about ten years as an active-duty officer.⁵ He earned a medical degree from the military’s Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.²²²³ He trained in psychiatry at Walter Reed Army Medical Center beginning in 2003.²²²³ The Army appeals court noted that he completed a four-year psychiatry residency and also held a master’s degree in public health.⁵ He later held a fellowship at the Uniformed Services University and was promoted to major in May 2009.²³ At the time of the shooting he was a psychiatrist at Darnall Medical Center at Fort Hood.⁵

Warning signs and official reviews

A 2011 Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee report concluded that Hasan became radicalized to “violent Islamist extremism” during his military medical training, and that the views were visible to his superiors and colleagues.⁹ According to the report, an instructor and a colleague each called him a “ticking time bomb,” yet no action was taken to discipline or discharge him, and his officer evaluation reports described his interest in extremism as legitimate counterterrorism research.⁹ The committee said it did not examine his culpability for the attack.⁹

The report found that an FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force flagged Hasan’s communications with a suspected terrorist and passed them to a second task force, which did not find all of them, did not notify his chain of command and dismissed the contacts as research.⁹ An independent review led by former FBI Director William Webster, as summarized in reporting on its 2012 report, found that Hasan began emailing the cleric Anwar al-Awlaki on Dec. 17, 2008, and that his first message asked whether soldiers who attacked fellow soldiers would be considered martyrs.²⁴ The commission found that FBI personnel made mistakes, but it did not find intentional misconduct and recommended no discipline. It made 18 recommendations.¹⁰

Motive

Hasan has said he carried out the attack to stop soldiers from deploying to Afghanistan and killing fellow Muslims.¹²¹¹ At sentencing, the government told the panel that “the acts of 5 November were religiously motivated.”²¹

Mental health

The R.C.M. 706 sanity board found that he had sufficient mental capacity to understand the proceedings and help in his defense.⁵ According to his appellate lawyers’ brief, Hasan refused the board’s psychological testing, and the board’s full report noted suspected “underlying personality pathology” but found “insufficient evidence to diagnose a personality disorder.”⁶ No mental-health diagnosis was found by any court in the sources reviewed.

Life in custody

Hasan uses a wheelchair.¹ He has been held on military death row at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth since his sentencing, one of four men there under military death sentences.⁸¹² John Galligan, who has represented him in civil matters, said in October 2026 that he was worried about Hasan’s physical health.¹³

No public statement by Hasan since his trial was found in the sources reviewed.