State & Federal Info
Military
People serving in the military are subject to a separate system of laws, courts, and procedures — including those regarding capital punishment.
State & Federal Info
People serving in the military are subject to a separate system of laws, courts, and procedures — including those regarding capital punishment.
Death Penalty Information Center Page: Additional Information on the Federal Death Penalty
People serving in the military are subject to a separate system of laws, courts, and procedures. Defendants retain certain rights guaranteed under the constitution, such as the right to representation.
The military death penalty has been used sparsely outside times of war. Only a few individuals are on the military death row, which is based at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. All were convicted of murder. There have been no executions in the modern era of the death penalty.
The military also has jurisdiction over military commissions, which are tribunals convened to try people accused of unlawful conduct associated with war, such as those established in Guantánamo Bay after the September 11, 2001 attacks. No one has been sentenced to death under these commissions.
Jan 10, 2019
The already chaotic Guantánamo death-penalty trial of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, accused of orchestrating the October 2000 attack on the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole, hit another snag as the most recent judge assign…
Read MoreHuman Rights
Feb 14, 2023
In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, Theodore B. Olson, former U.S. Solicitor General from 2001 to 2004 during President George W. Bush’s administration, called for a halt to the use of the death penalty against those…
Human Rights
Sep 16, 2022
A second military commissions prosecutor who had advocated using testimony obtained by torture against defendants in the death penalty trial of the Guantánamo detainees charged with the October 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. C…
Federal Death Penalty
Mar 18, 2022
Military prosecutors and defense attorneys are reportedly discussing plea deals that could take the death penalty off the table in the Guantánamo military commission cases of five men accused of involvement in the September 11, 2001 terrorist atta…
Human Rights
Feb 15, 2022
In what one analyst described as “an important step to restore the rule of law,” the U.S. Department of Justice has pledged not to use statements obtained by torture in its Guantánamo Military Commissions prosecut…
Human Rights
Jul 21, 2021
After clashing with Biden administration officials over the propriety of using statements obtained through torture from Guantánamo detainees, Army Brigadier General Mark S. Martins (pictured), the chief prosecutor…
Intellectual Disability
Dec 14, 2020
NEWS (12/11/20) — Texas: The U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the convictions and death sentences imposed on
Military
Mar 26, 2020
NEWS (3/25/20): Guantánamo Bay — In an action that adds further uncertainty to the already tumultuous proceedings in the Guantánamo Sept. 11 death-penalty trial, the military commission judge presiding over the case has announced that he w…
Representation
Mar 06, 2020
NEWS (3/6/20): The United States Court of Military Appeals has upheld the conviction and death sentence of Timothy Hennis, following his acquittal in Nor…
Innocence
Oct 11, 2019
Florida has scheduled the execution of 73-year-old James Dailey (pictured) for November 7, 2019, despite substantial evidence that he had no involvement in the killing, including a statement by the admitted killer, Daley’s co-defe…
Costs
Sep 23, 2019
As U.S. taxpayers pick up a tab of more than $6 billion and climbing, former top officials involved in the military commission death-penalty cases against Guantánamo Bay detainees have blasted the military tribunals for waste, mis…