The United States Army has drawn up a detailed internal plan to carry out the executions of all four inmates on the military's death row, the first such executions in more than sixty years, if President Donald Trump gives the order. The plan, dubbed "Operation Resolute Justice," was issued internally in February and directs Army officials to coordinate with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to transfer condemned prisoners from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to the federal execution facility in Terre Haute, Indiana.
If carried out, these would be the first military executions of convicted American service members since 1961. The men on death row include a mass shooter, a grenade-throwing sergeant, and a serial killer. Their victims, soldiers, women, children, have waited decades for the justice that courts already handed down.
The internal document lays out timelines for check-in meetings and procedures for carrying out executions no later than 150 days from presidential approval of the death sentences. It also addresses how the Army would manage public communications surrounding an execution, including provisions for media access to witness the proceedings.
Army spokesperson Cynthia Smith framed the planning effort as routine, not extraordinary.
"Exercises regarding this operation have been conducted regularly for the past 20 years. These drills are a standard component of our continued planning and preparation if the president approves a death sentence."
Routine or not, the plan arrives at a moment when the current administration has shown clear intent to restore the federal death penalty's force. Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in office directing the Justice Department to reinstate capital punishment and pursue its use more vigorously. In April, the Justice Department announced additional steps aimed at speeding the administration of executions, including expanding approved methods such as death by firing squad.
The military news website Task & Purpose first reported on the planning effort. The White House did not respond when asked whether Trump intends to approve moving forward with any of the military executions, instead referring inquiries to the Army.
Each case involves crimes of extraordinary violence. Each conviction has been upheld. And each sentence has sat unexecuted for years, in some cases, decades.
Nidal Hasan. The most publicly known of the four, Hasan was sentenced to death for the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting that left 13 dead and 32 injured. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has made Hasan's case a personal priority. In September, Hegseth told The Hill he was committed to seeing the sentence carried out.
"I am 100% committed to ensuring the death penalty is carried out for Nidal Hasan. The victims and survivors deserve justice without delays."
In May, Hegseth awarded Purple Hearts to nine veterans at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, who were wounded in a separate 2003 attack at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait, a ceremony that underscored the administration's focus on honoring those harmed by violence within the ranks.
Hasan Akbar. An Army sergeant and combat engineer, Akbar was convicted of premeditated murder and attempted murder for throwing grenades into tents and opening fire on fellow soldiers. The Camp Pennsylvania attack wounded the same veterans Hegseth later honored.
Ronald Gray. A former specialist and cook for the 82nd Airborne Division based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Gray was convicted in 1988 on 14 charges, including three counts of premeditated murder, attempted murder, and three counts of rape. President George W. Bush approved Gray's execution in July 2008, with a date set for December of that year. A federal judge halted the execution. That halt was not lifted by another judge until 2016. Gray has remained on death row ever since.
Timothy Hennis. A former master sergeant who worked on parachutes in the 82nd Airborne Division, Hennis was convicted in 1986 in North Carolina state court of raping a woman and murdering her and two of her daughters. That conviction was later overturned for insufficient evidence, and a 1989 retrial ended in acquittal. Hennis honorably left the Army in 2004. But years later, preserved evidence in the case was retested using DNA analysis not available at the time. U.S. military prosecutors can still charge a former service member if the offense was committed while on active duty. Hennis was recalled to active duty, tried again in military court, convicted, and sentenced to die.
The military has not executed a service member since 1961, when Pvt. John Bennett was put to death after being convicted of the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl in Austria. That is more than six decades of death sentences handed down by military courts and then left to gather dust.
The intervening years saw at least one sentence actively undone. President Barack Obama commuted the death sentence of Dwight Loving, convicted of murdering two soldiers in 1988, to a life sentence without parole. That commutation removed one name from the list. The other four remained, their sentences legally intact but practically suspended.
The Trump administration's posture marks a sharp departure. During Trump's first term, the Justice Department carried out a series of non-military federal executions. Now, with a new executive order reinforcing capital punishment and a defense secretary publicly pledging to see at least one military execution through, the planning has moved from abstract to operational.
Presidential approval is required before any military execution can proceed. The White House has not said whether Trump intends to grant it. The internal plan sets the machinery in motion, transfer logistics, timelines, communications protocols, media access, but none of it moves without a presidential signature.
The 150-day window built into the plan suggests the Army is prepared to act quickly once authorization comes. The coordination with the Bureau of Prisons and the selection of Terre Haute as the execution site mirror the infrastructure used for federal civilian executions, indicating the military does not plan to build a separate apparatus from scratch.
Whether Trump acts on one case or all four, and on what timeline, remains an open question. Hegseth's public statements have centered on Hasan, but the Army's plan covers all four condemned inmates.
The families of the dead and wounded at Fort Hood have waited sixteen years since the shooting. The families of Ronald Gray's victims have waited since 1988, thirty-seven years. Court after court upheld these sentences. Presidents declined to act. Judges issued stays. Bureaucracies moved at their own pace.
The result is a system that imposes the ultimate penalty in theory and then treats it as optional in practice. Military courts found these men guilty of murder, rape, and mass violence. Juries of their peers, fellow service members, concluded that death was the appropriate sentence. And then nothing happened.
Smith's characterization of the planning as routine underscores the absurdity. The Army has been rehearsing for executions for twenty years. The sentences are lawful. The convictions are final. The only missing ingredient is the will to follow through.
If the government asks juries to impose a sentence it never intends to carry out, the sentence is not justice. It is theater. The families of thirteen people killed at Fort Hood, of soldiers murdered in their tents, of women and children slain in their homes, deserve to know which one it is.
