Capital punishment by the United States military
The United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces ruled in 1983 that the military death penalty was unconstitutional, and after new standards intended to rectify the Armed Forces Court of Appeals' objections, the military death penalty was reinstated by an executive order of President Ronald Reagan the following year.
[1] On 28 July 2008, President George W. Bush approved the execution of Former United States Army Private Ronald A.
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.
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 (USDB), Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, although alternative locations are possible (such as the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute, Indiana, where federal civilian death-row inmates are housed and executed).
Of four convicted servicemen awaiting execution, three are confined at the USDB's Special Housing Unit and one at Camp Lejeune.
[citation needed] Prior to 1991, the methods of execution approved by Headquarters, Department of the Army were hanging, firing squad (musketry) or electrocution.
Electrocution was added as an option in the 1950s but could only be used at a specific confinement facility designated by Headquarters, and only be performed by a professional civilian executioner.
[8]: 7–9 In a military commission trial, the death penalty may only be imposed in case of a unanimous verdict and sentencing decision.
[8]: 31 In 1814, Private John Woods of the 39th United States Infantry was executed by a firing squad for assaulting a superior officer.
Colonel John Williams, the commanding officer of the 39th United States Infantry, said in a campaign pamphlet in 1828 that Private Woods cried "bitterly and loudly"; the Jackson camp claimed he was belligerent and deserved to die.
The United States Army executed 35 soldiers during the First World War by hanging between November 5, 1917, and June 20, 1919, all for offenses relating to murder or rape.
