The US Army has prepared a detailed execution plan for four military death-row inmates, including Nidal Hasan, as the Trump administration considers presidential approval of his death sentence.
The United States Army has prepared a detailed execution plan for military death-row inmates, including former Army Major Nidal Hasan, whose death sentence is awaiting presidential approval nearly 17 years after the 2009 Fort Hood shooting.
The internal plan, known as “Operation Resolute Justice,” was issued in February 2026 and outlines how the Army would carry out military executions if President Donald Trump approves the outstanding death sentences. According to an internal document reviewed by ABC News, the plan includes coordination with the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the transfer of condemned inmates from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to the federal execution facility in Terre Haute, Indiana.
If activated, the plan would mark the first execution by the U.S. military since 1961, when Army Private John Bennett was executed at Fort Leavenworth. The potential resumption of military executions would end a 65-year gap in the use of capital punishment by the armed forces.
Hasan was sentenced to death in August 2013 after a military court convicted him of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder over the November 5, 2009, shooting at the Fort Hood Soldier Readiness Processing Center in Texas. Thirteen people were killed and 32 others were wounded in the attack.
The Army’s legal review published in May 2026 provides a significant update on Hasan’s case, stating that then-Secretary of War Pete Hegseth requested in September 2025 that President Trump sign the death warrant approving and ordering Hasan’s execution. The document also notes that the president’s decision remains a critical step in the military death-penalty process.
Hegseth had publicly indicated his support for carrying out Hasan’s death sentence in 2025. ABC News reported that the defense secretary said he was fully committed to ensuring the death penalty was carried out for Hasan and that victims and survivors deserved justice.
Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a military death sentence requires personal presidential approval before it can be executed. The Army has stressed that no specific execution order has been issued and that the existence of Operation Resolute Justice does not mean an execution is imminent.
Army spokesperson Cynthia Smith said exercises connected to the operation have been conducted regularly for about two decades and described them as standard contingency planning undertaken in preparation for a possible presidential decision. The plan reportedly gives the Army up to 150 days from presidential approval to carry out an execution.
Four prisoners are currently held on the U.S. military’s death row at Fort Leavenworth: Hasan, Timothy Hennis, Ronald Gray and Hasan Akbar. All were convicted by military courts and sentenced to death.
Ronald Gray is the only one of the four whose execution has previously received presidential approval. President George W. Bush approved Gray’s execution in 2008, but a federal court subsequently halted it.
The Army’s plan reflects the modern procedures governing military capital punishment. Under current arrangements, Terre Haute, Indiana, is available as a location for military executions through an agreement with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The Army’s legal journal notes that the Secretary of the Army would establish the execution details following a presidential death warrant.
The last U.S. military execution was that of Private John Bennett on April 13, 1961. Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth after being convicted by court-martial of raping and attempting to murder an 11-year-old girl in Austria.
For now, however, the Army’s preparations remain contingent. Until President Trump gives the required approval, no execution date has been set for Hasan or the other military death-row inmates.
If the president authorizes Hasan’s execution and the subsequent legal process permits it to proceed, his case would become the first U.S. military execution in more than six decades and would bring an extraordinary chapter of American military justice back into operation.
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