Trump’s Firing Squad Move Puts These Five States in Focus
President Donald Trump has ordered for Nidal Hasan, the former U.S. Army psychiatrist who gunned down 13 unarmed U.S. soldiers in Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, to be executed by firing squad.Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on social media that the suggestion to use the firing squad was made by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and later approved by the president. The mass shooter, who was sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013, is set to become the first U.S. soldier to be executed in more than 60 years....But use of this particular method of execution—and call for introducing it in states that do not allow it—is on the rise across the country after the Trump administration reintroduced firing squads, electrocution and gas asphyxiation as alternative methods of executing people sentenced to the death penalty in April, especially as concerns over the use of the lethal injections pile up.What Does Execution by Firing Squad Mean?Firing squad is one of five methods of carrying out the death penalty that the U.S. has used historically, including lethal injection, electrocution, gas and hanging. The firing squad has been used only six times since 1977, when the use of capital punishment resumed after a 10-year pause. Trump added it to the permissible forms of execution for the gravest of federal crimes last year, though it remains rare.Lethal injection has historically been the most commonly used method since 1976, followed by electrocution, while hanging is currently illegal in all U.S. states. Which States Allow Execution by Firing Squad?There is a difference between the majority of executions in the U.S. and those involving U.S. Army personnel. Under military law, any military execution requires appellate review and a final judgment on its legality to move forward, after which it needs to be approved by the U.S. president. Most of the executions not involving U.S. Army personnel are carried out at the state level, at least in those 27 states where capital punishment is still legal. These include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.California, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania do not actively execute sentences either due to an official governor’s moratorium. Oregon and Wyoming have no inmates on death row.A total of 23 states and Washington, D.C., have completely abolished capital punishment.Within the 21 states that have the active authority and capability to carry out executions, only five allow executions to happen by firing squad, including Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah. While in most cases inmates can choose between different methods of execution, as of July 1, 2026, the firing squad is Idaho’s primary execution method.Tennessee’s inmate Christa Pike recently asked to be executed by firing squad, but the state only authorizes lethal injection and electrocution as methods of capital punishment. A Tennessee congressman, House Speaker Cameron Sexton, is now asking the state to consider the firing squad after Pike survived the lethal injection. Newsweek contacted Sexton's office for comment by email on Tuesday and is awaiting a response....How Does Execution by Firing Squad Work? In an execution by firing squad, a group of trained individuals, made up of anonymous volunteers from state corrections, law enforcement departments or the military, shoot simultaneously with firearms at a condemned, restrained inmate. Those shooting are aiming for the inmate’s heart.The composition of the firing squad can vary, with South Carolina using firing squads made of three volunteers and Utah using squads of five certified local law enforcement officers or peace officers....In South Carolina, prisoners are strapped to a metal chair that sits on a catch basin, according to The Associated Press, some 15 feet away from the firing squad. The squad uses bullets that are designed to break apart on impact, causing maximum damage to the heart.The idea of having multiple people firing at the same target at the same time helps prevent anyone from knowing who exactly might have fired the deadly shot.When Was the Last Firing Squad Execution? Until last year, executions by firing squad were rare in the U.S. and something of a relic of the past. But between March and November, three executions by firing squad were carried out in South Carolina, including that of Brad Keith Sigmon in March, that of Mikal Mahdi in April and that of Stephen Corey Bryant in November.Sigmon’s execution was the first by firing squad in the country since that of Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010 and the first ever to be carried out in South Carolina. Sigmon had been given two death sentences in 2002 for the double murder of his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 2001.Mahdi was sentenced to death in 2006 after murdering at least two people in a multistate crime spree, including off-duty police officer James Myers. Bryant was sentenced to death in 2008 after killing three people in October 2004....All three men chose to be executed by firing squad, as, under a South Carolina law passed in 2021, inmates have the option to pick between firing squad, the electric chair or lethal injection. In 2024, the state’s Supreme Court ruled that all three methods—the firing squad, the electric chair and lethal injection—are legal and the firing squad is not cruel, as a prisoner would not suffer longer than 15 seconds.Mahdi’s execution, however, raised questions of whether it is a humane method of executing an inmate, as an autopsy commissioned by the state found that man might have suffered for an extended period of time before dying because shooters missed his heart.When Will Hasan Be Executed?Hasan was a U.S. Army psychiatrist from Virginia who became radicalized after his mother’s death, when his embracing of religious conservatism alienated from his own family, according to a study by the Program on Extremism by The George Washington University.On November 5, 2009, he shouted "Allahu akbar" and opened fire at Fort Hood, killing 13 unarmed U.S. soldiers and injuring 32 more. The shooting has become known as one of the most infamous cases of lone-actor terrorism, and it was the deadliest ever noncombat attack on a U.S. military base.The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution, according to Parnell. "Judgement day for Hasan has finally come," the Pentagon spokesperson wrote. Hegseth wrote on social media, sharing Parnell’s post on X: "Justice."Three other inmates are currently on the U.S. military’s death row with Hasan.Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Alabama Jackson and James Debens
