Why the US is bringing back firing squads

The execution of Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan would be the first time the US Army had used a firing squad since 1945. A protester before the firing squad execution of Mikal Mahdi in 2025 America's use of the death penalty is under the spotlight once again after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the military would livestream the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan. The former military psychiatrist fatally shot 13 unarmed US soldiers at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009. His execution would be the first time the US Army had used a firing squad since 1945, a method that several states already authorise to put people to death.

And it comes on the heels of the botched death by lethal injection of Christa Pike – a woman convicted of murdering her classmate. Pike was taken to hospital and then discharged to prison 10 days later, after making a recovery from the failed attempt, her lawyers said. Amid rising concerns over botched executions – and renewed federal support for the death penalty – the US has introduced both new and old forms of execution like firing squads, the electric chair and the gas chamber. The vast majority of executions in the US have been lethal injections since they were first introduced in Texas