Four men currently sit on U.S. military death row, all held at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Nidal Hasan, Ronald Gray, Hasan Akbar, and Timothy Hennis. Each was convicted of premeditated murder by a court-martial, each has exhausted or nearly exhausted direct appeals, and none has an execution date. The military has not carried out an execution since 1961, and the Army cannot carry one out now without the president’s signed approval, which as of mid-2026 has not been given.
The Four Men on Military Death Row
Nidal Hasan. A former Army major and psychiatrist, Hasan was convicted in 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder for the November 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas (now Fort Cavazos). The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces affirmed his conviction and sentence in March 2024, and the Supreme Court denied his final certiorari petition in April 2025, closing out his direct appeals.1San Antonio Express-News. Nidal Hasan Fort Hood Loses Appeal Supreme Court2U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. United States v. Hasan, No. 21-0193
Ronald Gray. A former Army specialist stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Gray was convicted in 1988 of multiple premeditated murders, attempted murder, and rapes committed in and around Fayetteville in 1986 and 1987. He also received eight life sentences in civilian court for related offenses. Gray is the longest-serving inmate on military death row and the only one of the four whose execution has ever been approved by a sitting president: George W. Bush signed the order in July 2008, and the Army scheduled the execution for December 10, 2008, in Terre Haute, Indiana. Two weeks before the date, a federal judge issued a stay for habeas review. Gray’s post-conviction litigation has continued through the military and federal courts ever since, and no new date has been set.3Death Penalty Information Center. Descriptions of Cases for Those Sentenced to Death in U.S. Military4U.S. Army. Army Schedules Date for Execution of Pvt. Ronald A. Gray5Army Times. Judge Lifts Execution Stay for Ex-Soldier in Military Prison
Hasan Akbar. Born Mark Fidel Kools, Akbar was a sergeant with the 101st Airborne Division. On March 23, 2003, at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait, he disabled the camp’s generator, threw grenades into tents housing fellow soldiers, and fired on survivors with an M-4 rifle. The attack killed Army Captain Christopher Seifert and Air Force Major Gregory Stone and wounded 14 others. Akbar’s defense did not dispute that he carried out the attack but argued he was mentally incapable of premeditation. Prosecutors introduced diary entries showing planning, including one written about a month before the attack in which he deliberated about whether to kill “Muslim brothers” or his “battle buddies.” A 15-member military panel sentenced him to death in April 2005. The Supreme Court denied his final certiorari petition in March 2025.6NBC News. Sergeant Charged in 2003 Kuwait Attack7CIA Library. Backgrounder: Sgt. Hasan Akbar and the March 2003 Kuwait Attack8National Institute of Military Justice. Where Are We on Hasan
Timothy Hennis. A former master sergeant, Hennis was convicted at a 2010 court-martial of the 1985 murders of Kathryn Eastburn and two of her young daughters in Fayetteville, North Carolina. His is the only known case in U.S. history in which a person has been tried for the same killings three separate times. A North Carolina jury convicted and sentenced him to death in 1986; the state supreme court overturned that conviction over the prejudicial use of crime-scene photographs; a 1989 state retrial acquitted him. He retired from the Army in 2004. Two years later, DNA analysis identified spermatozoa from the crime scene as his. Because the Double Jeopardy Clause barred North Carolina from trying him again, the Army recalled him to active duty and court-martialed him under a UCMJ provision allowing military jurisdiction over a retiree for offenses that “cannot be tried in the courts of the United States or any State.” The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces affirmed in February 2020, and the Supreme Court denied certiorari on January 11, 2021.9CNN. Death Row Stories: Timothy Hennis10U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. United States v. Hennis, No. 17-026311U.S. Supreme Court. Hennis v. United States, Petition for Certiorari12SCOTUSblog. Hennis v. United States
The Army’s Current Execution Planning
In February 2026, the Army issued an internal plan titled Operation Resolute Justice, which lays out logistics for transferring condemned inmates from Fort Leavenworth to the federal execution facility in Terre Haute, Indiana. It covers coordination with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, procedures for the execution itself, the establishment of a witness viewing station, and a timeline requiring that an execution be carried out within 150 days of presidential approval.13ABC News. Army Lays Groundwork for Death Row Executions With Trump Approval
Army spokesperson Cynthia Smith said the service had not received a specific execution order from the president and called the planning a “standard component of our continued planning and preparation if the president approves a death sentence,” noting that similar exercises have been conducted for roughly 20 years.14Military.com. Army Lays Groundwork for First Military Executions Since 1961
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in September 2025 that he was “100% committed to ensuring the death penalty is carried out for Nidal Hasan,” and the Pentagon has reportedly sought presidential approval for Hasan’s execution specifically.15Fox News. Pentagon Seeks Trump Approval for First US Military Execution in 60 Years As of mid-2026, no formal order has been signed. The White House has not publicly addressed whether President Trump intends to approve any military execution orders, referring questions to the Army.
The planning sits inside a broader federal shift on capital punishment. President Trump signed an executive order on January 20, 2025, directing the Justice Department to reinstate federal civilian executions and lifting the moratorium Attorney General Merrick Garland had imposed in July 2021. In April 2026, the Justice Department announced it would authorize firing squads, electrocution, and lethal gas, alongside lethal injection with pentobarbital, for federal civilian executions.16NPR. Trump Executive Order on Executions Resumed17Congressional Research Service. Federal Death Penalty Legal Sidebar18New York Times. Trump Administration Approves Firing Squad Executions Those methods apply to the civilian system; the Army’s existing regulation designates lethal injection as the approved method for military executions. President Biden had commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 federal civilian death row inmates before leaving office, but the four men on military death row are in Army custody and were not affected by those commutations.
Why the President’s Signature Is the Hinge
Under Article 71 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, codified at 10 U.S.C. § 871, “that part of the sentence providing for death may not be executed until approved by the President.” The president may also commute or remit the sentence. Once the president signs an execution order, the Secretary of the Army sets a date no sooner than 60 days from the approval, and the condemned prisoner may seek habeas corpus relief in federal court.19Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 U.S.C. § 871 – Execution of Sentence; Suspension of Sentence20U.S. Army. AR 190-55: U.S. Army Corrections System Procedures for Military Execution
Getting to that signature takes decades. A military capital case must be unanimously decided by a 12-member panel, then reviewed by the convening authority, then by the branch’s Court of Criminal Appeals, then by the civilian Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and then potentially by the U.S. Supreme Court on certiorari.21Death Penalty Information Center. The Military’s Death Penalty System Only after that full sequence does a case reach the president’s desk, and even then federal habeas review remains available.
Why No One Has Been Executed Since 1961
The last U.S. military execution took place on April 13, 1961, when Army Private John A. Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth for the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl in Austria. President Eisenhower signed the death warrant, and President Kennedy declined to intervene.22CNN. Military Execution Soldier Profile
The gap since then is the product of several forces working together. In 1983, a military appeals court found the death penalty unconstitutional under the sentencing guidelines then in use, and all existing death sentences were commuted to life. President Reagan reinstated military capital punishment in 1984 with revised procedures. Prosecutors have sought death in 49 cases since then but obtained only 15 or 16 death sentences, and most of those were overturned on appeal or commuted by commanding generals. President Obama commuted the sentence of Private Dwight Loving in January 2017, the first presidential commutation of a military death sentence in more than 50 years.23CNN. Military Death Penalty24Cornell Law School. After Three Decades, Capital Punishment Clinic Client Dwight Loving Removed From Military Death Row
The appellate pipeline is the most immediate practical reason. Gray has been in some stage of appellate or post-conviction review since his 1988 sentencing; Akbar’s case moved from a 2005 sentence to final certiorari denial in 2025. Even once direct review ends, federal habeas remains available after a presidential order is signed, and the stay that halted Gray’s scheduled 2008 execution shows how late in the process a court can still intervene.
Where Executions Would Happen
The U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth is the Department of Defense’s only maximum-security prison and the oldest federal prison in continuous operation in the country, dating to 1875. The current facility, completed in 2002 at a cost of $67.8 million, has 515 beds and is staffed by the 15th Military Brigade. Its stated mission includes conducting executions of condemned military prisoners, though under Operation Resolute Justice the actual execution would take place at the federal facility in Terre Haute, Indiana.25City of Leavenworth. United States Disciplinary Barracks13ABC News. Army Lays Groundwork for Death Row Executions With Trump Approval