Capital punishment by the United States military

Capital punishment is a legal penalty under the U.S. military criminal justice system.

Reinstatement of the military death penalty

Nidal Hasan when he was still in the military.

The U.S. Armed Forces Court of Appeals ruled in 1983 that the military death penalty was unconstitutional. The military death penalty was reinstated by an executive order of President Ronald Reagan in 1984, with new standards intended to rectify the Armed Forces Court of Appeals' objections.^[1]

On 28 July 2008, President George W. Bush approved the execution of Former United States Army Private Ronald A. Gray, who had been convicted in April 1988 of multiple murders and rapes. A month later, Secretary of the Army Pete Geren set an execution date of 10 December 2008 and ordered that Gray be put to death by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute. The military publicly released Gray's execution date on 20 November 2008. On 26 November, however, Gray was granted a stay of execution by federal judge Rogers.^[2] In December 2016, a Kansas federal judge lifted Gray's stay, moving Gray one step closer to becoming the U.S. military's first death sentence carried out in more than a half-century.^[3]

The U.S. Military has currently five inmates on death row, the most recent being Nidal Hasan for murdering 13 people and injuring more than 30 others during the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting.

Capital crimes

Currently, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 14 offenses are punishable by death. Under the following sections of the UCMJ, the death penalty can be imposed at any time:

• 94 – Mutiny or sedition
• 99 – Misbehavior before the enemy
• 100 – Subordinate compelling surrender
• 101 – Improper use of countersign
• 102 – Forcing a safeguard
• 104 – Aiding the enemy
• 106a – Espionage
• 110 – Improper hazarding of vessel
• 118 – Murder
• 120 – Rape ^[4]

Four provisions of the UCMJ carry a death sentence only if the crime is committed during times of war:

• 85 – Desertion
• 90 – Assaulting or willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer
• 106 – Lurking as a spy or acting as a spy
• 113 – Misbehavior of a sentinel or lookout

Legal process

United States Disciplinary Barracks houses men on military death row

All female prisoners in the DOD serve time at Naval Consolidated Brig, Miramar (therefore female military servicemembers under death sentences would await execution here)

Capital cases are tried in courts-martial before a panel of at least twelve military members. If the defendant is an enlisted servicemember, they may opt for at least one third of the panel to also be of enlisted rank. All members of the panel must outrank the accused. The defendant cannot plead guilty to the charges. A two-third majority is enough for conviction, but unanimity is required to issue a death sentence during the penalty phase of the proceeding.

All death sentences are automatically appealed first to the Court of Criminal Appeals for the military service concerned, then to the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. The sentence must be personally confirmed by the President of the United States.

Military executions would be conducted under regulations issued on 17 January 2006,^[5] and would ordinarily take place at the Special Housing Unit of the United States Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, although alternative locations are possible (such as the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute, where federal civilian death row inmates are housed and executed). Of five convicted servicemen awaiting execution, four are confined at the Special Housing Unit and one at Camp Lejeune, all of whom have been convicted of murder.

Until 1961, the last military execution to date, hanging was the sole and official method. Later, the military introduced the electric chair, which was never used.^[6] Currently, lethal injection is the only method.^[1]

Previous use

The military executed 160 soldiers and other members of the armed forces between 1942 and 1961 (these figures do not include German prisoners of war, war criminals, spies, and saboteurs executed by U.S. military authorities between 1942 and 1951). There have been no military executions since 1961 although the death penalty is still a possible punishment for several crimes under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Of these executions, 157 were carried out by the United States Army. The United States Air Force conducted the three remaining executions, one in 1950 and two in 1954. The U.S. Navy has not executed anyone since 1849. The United States Army had previously executed a total of 36 soldiers during the First World War, all taking place by hanging between 5 November 1917 and 20 June 1919. Eleven of these hangings were performed in France while the remaining 25 were carried out in continental United States.^[7][8][9]

Of the total, 106 were executed for murder (including 21 involving rape), 53 for rape and one (Eddie Slovik) for desertion.^[10]

See also

• List of individuals executed by the United States military
• List of death row inmates held by the United States military

References

External links

• American executions at Shepton Mallet
• US Military Executions During WW2