The US Army has a fully operational plan to execute all four of its military death row inmates, and the only thing standing between it and the first military execution in 65 years is a signature from President Donald Trump.
An internal planning document reviewed by ABC News reveals that the Army issued the plan, officially named 'Operation Resolute Justice,' in February 2026. The document directs the Army to coordinate with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to transfer the four condemned men from the US Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to the federal execution facility in Terre Haute, Indiana. An Army spokesperson confirmed the plan's existence and called the associated drills standard preparation, but confirmed no presidential order has been given.
Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), a military death sentence cannot be carried out without the explicit approval of the president. The four men now awaiting that decision are Nidal Hasan, Ronald Gray, Hasan Akbar and Timothy Hennis. Their cases span four decades of military criminal history, each involving murder, with each sentence surviving years of legal appeals.
Operation Resolute Justice
The military news outlet Task and Purpose first reported on the existence of the planning effort, and ABC News subsequently reviewed the internal document directly. The plan sets a binding internal target: executions must be carried out 'no later than 150 days from the date of presidential approval of the death sentences.' That timeline covers the prisoner transfer from Kansas to Indiana, witness viewing arrangements, media access provisions and inter-agency coordination with the Bureau of Prisons.
Army spokesperson Cynthia Smith confirmed the drills tied to the plan have been conducted regularly for approximately 20 years. 'These drills are a standard component of our continued planning and preparation if the president approves a death sentence,' Smith told ABC News, adding that the Army has not received a specific execution order from the president. The White House did not respond to ABC News's requests for comment on whether Trump intends to approve any of the pending sentences.
The plan also details public communications management in the event an execution proceeds, including structured media access for witnesses. Terre Haute, Indiana, is not a new venue for federal executions; it was the site of 13 civilian federal executions carried out during Trump's first term, the most in any presidential term in modern American history.
Four Men on Military Death Row
The most prominent name on military death row is former Army Major Nidal Hasan. On 5 November 2009, Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, opened fire inside a readiness processing centre at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people and wounding 32 others. He represented himself at court-martial, declared on the first day of trial that 'the evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter,' and was sentenced to death in August 2013 after a panel deliberated for less than two hours. As the Army's official record confirms, the panel also stripped Hasan of all pay and dismissed him from the service. The US Supreme Court denied his final appeal in March 2025.
Ronald Gray's case dates back to 1988, making him the longest-serving inmate on military death row. A former Army specialist and cook assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Gray was convicted on 14 charges including three counts of premeditated murder, attempted murder and three counts of rape. President George W. Bush signed his execution order in July 2008 and set a December date, but a federal judge halted it before it could be carried out. A separate judge lifted the stay in 2016, and an Army court rejected his final appeal in 2017. Gray remains the only current military death row inmate for whom a president has already approved an execution.
Army Sergeant Hasan Akbar was convicted of premeditated murder for a 2003 grenade and rifle attack at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait, carried out on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq. Akbar threw fragmentation grenades into sleeping soldiers' tents and then opened fire, killing an Army captain and an Air Force major and wounding 14 others. He was court-martialled and sentenced to death in April 2005. In May 2026, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth awarded Purple Hearts to nine of the veterans wounded in Akbar's attack at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, a move widely read as a signal of administration intent.
Timothy Hennis, a former Army master sergeant, was convicted by a military court for the 1985 rape and murder of a woman and the murders of two of her young daughters in North Carolina. Civilian courts initially convicted him, then acquitted him on retrial in 1989. Years later, DNA evidence re-examined from preserved samples linked him definitively to the crimes. Because double jeopardy rules blocked a further state prosecution, military prosecutors recalled Hennis to active duty under the legal principle that former service members can be tried by military courts for offences committed during active service. He was convicted and sentenced to death in military court in 2010.
Death Penalty Agenda
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has made no secret of his position. In September 2025, he told The Hill: 'I am 100% committed to ensuring the death penalty is carried out for Nidal Hasan. This savage terrorist deserves the harshest lawful punishment for his 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood. The victims and survivors deserve justice without delays.'
Trump laid the legislative groundwork for this moment on his first day back in office, signing Executive Order 14164, titled 'Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety,' which reversed the Biden administration's moratorium on federal executions and directed the Department of Justice to pursue capital punishment in every eligible case.
In April 2026, the Department of Justice went further. A DOJ press release confirmed that the department had readopted the lethal injection protocol from Trump's first term and expanded approved execution methods to include the firing squad. The department also announced it was streamlining internal processes to accelerate capital cases from appeal to execution. At the time of the announcement, the DOJ was actively seeking death sentences against 44 defendants in civilian federal court.
The last military execution in the United States was carried out on 13 April 1961, when Private John A. Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth after being convicted of rape and attempted murder. In the 65 years since, the military has sentenced several service members to death but carried out none of those sentences. Presidents from both parties have allowed the cases to sit. Barack Obama commuted the sentence of military death row inmate Dwight Loving to life without parole. Loving had been convicted of murdering two soldiers in 1988.
Operation Resolute Justice is ready. The clock, however, does not start until the White House gives the word.
