The U.S. mil­i­tary has its own laws and court sys­tem sep­a­rate from those of the states and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. Although the mil­i­tary jus­tice sys­tem allows the death penal­ty, no exe­cu­tions have been car­ried out in over 50 years. The last exe­cu­tion was the hang­ing on April 13, 1961 of U.S. Army Private John Bennett for rape and attempt­ed mur­der. The mil­i­tary death penal­ty law was struck down in 1983 but was rein­stat­ed in 1984 with new rules detail­ing the aggra­vat­ing cir­cum­stances that make a case death-eli­gi­ble. Only about one-third of the cap­i­tal cas­es tried under this law result­ed in a death sen­tence. As of 1997, mil­i­tary law allows for an alter­na­tive sen­tence of life with­out parole. Six men are cur­rent­ly on the mil­i­tary death row, which is housed in the dis­ci­pli­nary bar­racks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The President has the pow­er to com­mute any mil­i­tary death sen­tence. A 2012 study indi­cat­ed that defen­dants of col­or in the mil­i­tary were twice as like­ly to be sen­tenced to death as white defendants.

(DPIC, November 10, 2014). See U.S. Military and Race.

Citation Guide