Maj. Nidal Hasan Unlikely To Be Executed, Even if Given the Death Penalty

The military hasn't executed someone since 1961

Maj. Nidal Hasan may call for his own execution at his murder trial in Killeen, Texas, but the closest he will likely get to the execution chamber is the barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where five other soldiers on death row wait out their own sentences.

The military psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others faces military court and military justice. But the U.S. military hasn't executed anyone since 1961 and is unlikely to break that trend for an officer calling for his own death.

"The military isn't big on executing people," says Lt. Col. Gary Solis, a retired Marine court judge, who first served as a military lawyer before becoming a Navy judge in a military career of 26 years. "Since the end of World War II very few people have been executed. It's a complex story, it has to do with the Uniform Code of Military Justice."