Military

Descriptions of Cases for Those Sentenced to Death in U.S. Military

Currently on Military Death Row

NameRaceYear of SentenceCrime Facts

Ronald Gray

Black

1988

Former Army spe­cial­ist at Fort Bragg, N.C., was charged with abduct­ing, rap­ing, sodom­iz­ing, and mur­der­ing Private Laura Lee Vickery-Clay, age 18. He was also charged with attempt­ing to rape and mur­der Private Mary Ann Lang Nameth, age 20, and with the rape and mur­der of a civil­ian, Kimberly Ann Ruggles, age 23. Gray was con­vict­ed by gen­er­al court-mar­tial of 14 charges, includ­ing the pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­ders, the attempt­ed mur­der, and the three rapes.

Hasan Akbar

Black

2005

Former Army Sergeant, was con­vict­ed of two counts of pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der and three counts of attempt­ed pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der of 16 U.S. sol­diers. Akbar was charged in a hand grenade and shoot­ing attack that killed Army Captain Christopher Seifert and Air Force Major Gregory Stone, while wound­ing 14 oth­er sol­diers on March 23, 2003. The attack took place at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait, dur­ing the inva­sion of Iraq. The com­man­der of the 18th Airborne Corps affirmed the death sen­tence and a divid­ed Army Court of Criminal Appeals vot­ed 3 – 2 to uphold his death sen­tence in August 2015. (See Soldier Convicted in Deadly Attack on HIs Camp, Associated Press, April 22, 2005; Michael Doyle, Military court upholds death sen­tence in 2003 ​‘frag­ging’ case, McClatchey News Service, August 20, 2015.)

Timothy Hennis

White

2010

Master Sgt., was con­vict­ed in 1986 of mur­der­ing three peo­ple in North Carolina. He was tried in state court. However, his con­vic­tion was over­turned because of weak evi­dence and improp­er state­ments by the pros­e­cu­tion. He was re-tried, and the jury vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly for his acquit­tal in 1989. The evi­dence from the crime scene was pre­served and, when DNA test­ing became avail­able, a re-eval­u­a­tion of the evi­dence point­ed to the pos­si­bil­i­ty that Hennis was indeed guilty of the mur­ders. Although the con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­tec­tion against dou­ble jeop­ardy pre­vent­ed his being re-tried in North Carolina’s court, mil­i­tary courts have sep­a­rate juris­dic­tion and can try cas­es under mil­i­tary laws, allow­ing a retri­al even after an acquit­tal in state court. Hennis, who had left the ser­vice, was recalled to active duty in the mil­i­tary and then tried for the third time for the triple mur­der — of a woman and two chil­dren. A mil­i­tary jury con­vict­ed Hennis of mur­der on April 8, 2010 and sen­tenced him to death on April 15. Hennis was pre­vi­ous­ly includ­ed on DPIC’s list of exon­er­at­ed indi­vid­u­als. (See John Schwartz, In 3rd Trial, Conviction in Murders From 1985, New York Times, April 8, 2010.)

Nidal Hasan

Middle Eastern

2013

Major Hasan was an Army psy­chi­a­trist sta­tioned at Ft. Hood, Texas. He killed 13 peo­ple on the base in 2009 and wound­ed many oth­ers because he believed it would aid Islamic insur­gents in oth­er coun­tries where the U.S. had a pres­ence. He was found guilty on all counts, and the jury unan­i­mous­ly vot­ed for a death sen­tence on August 28, 2013. Hasan defend­ed him­self, though stand­by coun­sel attempt­ed to inter­vene dur­ing the pro­ceed­ings. (See Michael Graczyk, Soldier sen­tenced to death for Fort Hood shoot­ing, Associated Press, Aug. 28, 2013.)

[Brackets indi­cate that the con­vic­tion or death sen­tence has been over­turned, but that appeals are still in progress or the defen­dant still faces retri­al or resen­tenc­ing pro­ceed­ings. If no brack­ets appear, all of the pre­vi­ous­ly over­turned cas­es have com­plet­ed the resentencing process.]

No Longer on Military Death Row

  • Witt, Andrew (W), Former Air Force senior air­man from Robins Air Force Base, Ga., was con­vict­ed of two counts of pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der and one count of attempt­ed pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der. Witt stabbed Senior Airman Andy Schliepsiek and his wife to death at Robins Air Force Base (GA). He also seri­ous­ly injured Staff Sergeant Jason King. He was sen­tenced to death by an Air Force mil­i­tary jury on October 13 2005. On August 9, 2013, Witt’s death sen­tence was over­turned by the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals — an inter­me­di­ate appel­late court — on grounds of inef­fec­tive­ness of coun­sel. The mil­i­tary appealed that deci­sion, and Witt’s death sen­tence was rein­stat­ed by the Air Force Court of Appeals in July 2014. (Stars & Stripes, July 3, 2014). However, on July 19, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces — the nation’s high­est mil­i­tary court — again reversed Witt’s death sen­tence and remand­ed the case for a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing. (McClatchyDC, July 20, 2016). On July 6, 2018, the jury in his resen­tenc­ing tri­al in an Air Force court mar­tial sen­tenced him to life without parole. 
  • Loving, Dwight (B), Former Army pri­vate first class at Fort Hood, Texas, was con­vict­ed of two counts of pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der, two counts of rob­bery and oth­er felonies, and sen­tenced to death in 1989. Loving was charged with mur­der­ing two taxi­cab dri­vers. One of the taxi dri­vers was Private Christopher Fay, an active duty Army solid­er sta­tioned at Fort Hood. The oth­er vic­tim was retired Army Sergeant Bobby Sharbino. Loving gave an undis­put­ed video­taped con­fes­sion. Loving applied for clemen­cy in 2003. His death sen­tence was com­mut­ed by President Barack Obama four­teen years lat­er on January 17, 2017.
  • Parker, Kenneth (B), a for­mer Marine lance cor­po­ral at Camp Lejeune, N.C., was con­vict­ed of two counts of pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der, one count each of armed rob­bery and kid­nap­ping. Sentenced to death in 1995 for the mur­ders of two Lance Corporals in near­by Jacksonville, N.C., as Wade Walker’s code­fen­dant. UPDATE: Death sen­tence reversed by U.S. Navy-Marine Court of Criminal Appeals, Aug. 22, 2012. One count of mur­der was also reversed. He was resen­tenced to life. (NBC News, Aug. 23, 2012).
  • Murphy, James T. (B), a for­mer Army Sergeant, was sta­tioned in Germany. On August 20, 1987 before leav­ing Germany, appel­lant went to his wife’s (Petra Murphy, a German National) apart­ment. There, accord­ing to his con­fes­sion, he killed her by smash­ing in her head with a ham­mer. He also admit­ted that he killed Tim and James, Jr., the two chil­dren. He was con­vict­ed of three spec­i­fi­ca­tions of pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der, and sin­gle spec­i­fi­ca­tions of lar­ce­ny, bigamy, and false swear­ing. Now sen­tenced to life. (CAAFlog, 5/​14/​2010)
  • Kreutzer, William (W), a for­mer Army Sergeant sta­tioned at Ft. Bragg, N.C., was con­vict­ed of one spec­i­fi­ca­tion of pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der and 18 spec­i­fi­ca­tions of attempt­ed mur­der, as well as one spec­i­fi­ca­tion of vio­lat­ing a gen­er­al order by trans­port­ing weapons on post. Kreutzer opened fire on a for­ma­tion at Fort Bragg on October 27, 1995, killing one oth­er Sergeant and wound­ing 18 sol­diers, and killing Major Stephen Mark Badger. Now sen­tenced to life. (US Army)
  • Walker, Wade (B), a for­mer Marine lance cor­po­ral at Camp Lejeune, N.C., was con­vict­ed of two counts of pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der, one count each of adul­tery and kid­nap­ping, and oth­er felonies. Sentenced to death for the mur­ders of two Lance Corporals in near­by Jacksonville, N.C. He was sen­tenced to life at a resen­tenc­ing in Feb. 2010. He had been con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1993, along with Kenneth Parker, for the mur­der of 2 oth­er Marines. (Marine Corps Times, Feb. 22, 2010).
  • Quintanilla, Jessie (Asian/​Pacific Islander), for­mer Marine cor­po­ral at Camp Pendleton, Calif., was con­vict­ed of one count of pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der, two counts of attempt­ed mur­der, and oth­er felonies and sen­tenced to death in 1998. Quintanilla was charged with the mur­der of Lieut. Colonel Daniel Wayne Kidd. Sergeant Quintanilla claimed he was an alco­holic dis­turbed by fam­i­ly and finan­cial prob­lems and that he only want­ed to speak with Colonel Kidd. He was resen­tenced to life with­out parole in 2010. (L.A. Times, Sept. 22, 2010).
  • Dock, Todd A. (W), A rob­bery mur­der of a cab dri­ver killed with mul­ti­ple stab wounds. Death sen­tence: 1984
  • Turner, Melvin, A mur­der of the accused’s 11-month-old daugh­ter with a razor blade. Death sen­tence: 1985. Turner’s death sen­tence was over­turned pri­or to appeal by a dis­cre­tionary deci­sion of the mil­i­tary court convening authority.
  • Curtis, Ronnie A. (B), Two vic­tims. Burglary, rob­bery and mur­der of the accused’s com­mand­ing offi­cer and the offi­cer’s wife with mul­ti­ple stab wounds in retal­i­a­tion for racial slights by the offi­cer. Death sentence:1987
  • Thomas, Joseph L., mur­der of accused’s wife with a tire iron to col­lect insur­ance pro­ceeds. Death sen­tence: 1988
  • Gibbs, Curtis A., A killing of a female drink­ing com­pan­ion who was near­ly decap­i­tat­ed with a sword. Death sen­tence: 1990. Gibbs’ death sen­tence was over­turned pri­or to appeal by a dis­cre­tionary deci­sion of the mil­i­tary court convening authority.
  • Simoy, Jose F. (Asian/​Pacific Islander), The accused and four co-per­pe­tra­tors robbed indi­vid­u­als deliv­er­ing pro­ceeds to a bank on an air­base and in the process killed a police offi­cer with pipe blows to the head and near­ly killed anoth­er per­son. The accused was not the trig­ger­per­son. Death sen­tence: 1992