
Federal Death Penalty
Death Penalty Information Center Page: Additional Information on the Federal Death Penalty
Overview
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.
News & Developments
News
Jan 10, 2019
Chaos Continues in Guantánamo Death-Penalty Trial, As Another Military Judge Quits

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 assigned to preside over the controversial proceedings will be leaving the military and quitting the case. In a January 4, 2019 appellate pleading recently obtained by the McClatchy News Service, prosecutors advised the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that Air Force Colonel Shelley Schools (pictured), assigned in August 2018 as the…
Read MoreNews
Sep 28, 2023
Guantanamo Bay Judge Rules 9/11 Capital Defendant Mentally Incompetent to Stand Trial
On September 21, 2023, a military judge in Guantanamo Bay ruled that Ramzi Bin al Shibh, one of five defendants in the 9/11 case for whom the death penalty is being sought, is mentally incompetent to stand trial. Mr. Bin al Shibh, who has been detained for 21 years, will remain in custody at Guantanamo as authorities attempt to treat the post-traumatic stress disorder caused when he was forced to undergo “enhanced interrogations” by the U.S. government.
Read MoreNews
Aug 22, 2023
Confessions of Guantanamo Detainee in Death Penalty Case Excluded as Product of Torture
On August 18, 2023, a military judge in Guantanamo Bay overseeing the pretrial capital prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the Saudi national accused of organizing the October 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, excluded Mr. al-Nishiri’s confessions as the product of torture. “Exclusion of such evidence is not without societal costs,” said the judge, Col. Lanny J. Acosta Jr., in a 50-page decision. “However, permitting the admission of evidence obtained by or derived from torture by the same government that seeks to prosecute and execute the accused may have even greater…
Read MoreNews
Feb 14, 2023
NEW VOICES: Ted Olson, Solicitor General in the Bush Administration, Calls for End to Guantánamo Death Penalty Cases
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 implicated in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. He recommended that the capital proceedings against the defendants being held in Guantánamo Bay be brought “to as rapid and just a conclusion as possible.”
Read MoreNews
Sep 16, 2022
Guantánamo Prosecutor Who Advocated Use of Torture Testimony Removed from U.S.S. Cole Bombing Case
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. Cole (pictured) in waters off the coast of Yemen has been removed from the case.
Read MoreNews
Mar 18, 2022
Plea Talks Are Under Way in Guantánamo September 11 Case that Could Take Death Penalty Off the Table
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 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The negotiations, first reported by the New York Times on March 15, 2022 and subsequently confirmed by defense counsel, would require alleged 9/11 planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four others to plead guilty to charges of terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder in violation…
Read MoreNews
Feb 15, 2022
Department of Justice Reverses Course, Rejects Use of Evidence Obtained by Torture in Guantánamo Death Penalty Case
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 prosecution of Abd Al-Rahim Hussein Al-Nashiri. Al-Nashiri is accused of masterminding the Al Qaeda suicide bombing of the U.S.S. Cole that killed 17 U.S. sailors in October 2000. The U.S. government is seeking the death penalty against him.
Read MoreNews
Jul 21, 2021
At Odds with Biden Administration’s Concern Over Use of Statements Obtained by Torture, Chief Guantánamo Prosecutor Retires
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 in the Guantánamo Military Commissions trials, will retire from the military on September 30, 2021. Martins, who had served as the commissions’ chief prosecutor throughout the Obama and Trump administrations, abruptly submitted papers on July 7 providing notice of his early retirement. Gen. Martins had recently sought and obtained an extension of his Guantánamo assignment until January 1, 2023.
Read MoreStories
Dec 14, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of December 7, 2020
NEWS (12/11/20) — Texas: The U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the convictions and death sentences imposed on Major Nidal Hasan in the mass shooting at Fort Hood that killed 13 and wounded 32.
Read MoreStories
Mar 26, 2020
News Brief — Retirement of Guantánamo Military Judge Likely to Further Delay Sept. 11 Death-Penalty Trial
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 will be retiring from military service.
Read MoreStories
Mar 06, 2020
News Brief — Recent Death-Penalty Decisions Through March 6
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 North Carolina on the same charges. The court’s ruling, issued on February 28, rejected Hennis’ challenges to the military court’s jurisdiction to try him for a May 1985 rape and triple murder.
Read More