Military

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.