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Death row and capital punishment in the army
Navigate by clicking on te links below -Currently on Military death row
Currently on Military Death Row List of inmates on the United States Military Death Row Name
/ Registration number - Gray, Ronald A. # 733786-88-01 Mail sent to inmates on the United States Military Death Row should be addressed as
following:
Information
and statistics on the Facts and Figures (as of 01/01/2007) Total Death Row Inmates; 9 Race; 6 blacks, 2 whites and 1 Hispanic Gender; 9 males Roster; Gray, Ronald A. # 733786-88-01
(Black) 135 people have been executed by the Army since 1916 (Source: National Law Journal, 4/5/99) Date of last military execution On April 13, 1961, U.S. Army Private John A. Bennett was hanged after being convicted of rape and attempted murder. (R. Serrano, "Last Soldier to Die at Levenworth Hanged in an April Storm," Los Angeles Times, 7/12/94 - Article is placed below this information). Minimum Age to Receive the Death Penalty 18 years Death Row Location U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Method of Execution Lethal Injection Date the Death Penalty Was Reenacted after Furman In 1983, the Armed Forces Court of Appeals held in U.S. v. Matthews,
Life Without Parole A recent amendment to the Uniform Code of Military Justice offers a new
alternative to the death penalty. For crimes that occurred on or after
November 17, Clemency Process The President has the power to commute a death sentence and no servicemember can be executed unless the President personally confirms the death penalty. Capital Offenses The Uniform Code of Military Justice provides the death penalty as a possible punishment for 15 offenses, many of which must occur during a time of war. All 7 men on the military's death row were convicted of premeditated murder or felony murder. Who Decides Sentence The only other requirement of a panel is that it consist of at least
five members. Therefore, the number of panelists in a military death
penalty case can vary from case to case. Although no state provides for
a panel of less than 12 jurors in a capital case, military appellate
courts have rejected challenges to capital court-martialed panels with
fewer than 12 members. (see, e.g., United States v. Curtins, (Unless otherwise noted, source: D. Sullivan, "A Matter of Life and
Death: Examining the Military Death Penalty's Fairness," The
Federal Lawyer, June 1998) Overview An excerpt from: "A
Matter of Life and Death: Examining the Military Death
Penalty's Fairness" by Dwight Sullivan (The Federal Lawyer, June
1998) (reprinted with permssion of author) The "convening authority" -- a high-ranking commanding officer
who decides to bring the case to trial -- chooses whether the government
will seek a death sentence. If the case is referred capitally, the
defendant cannot choose a bench [judge only] trial; rather, the case
must be tried before a panel of at least five military members. The
Uniform Code of Military Justice also precludes the defendant in a
capital case from pleading guilty. Thus, every military death penalty
case is resolved by trial before a panel of servicemembers. A death penalty will be imposed only if the panel members reach unanimous agreement on four separate points. First, a military defendant cannot be sentenced to death absent a unanimous conviction of a death-eligible offense.... If the panel returns a unanimous conviction, the case then enters the sentencing phase.... The case's outcome will depend upon the [panel] members' resolution of three issues. First, they must determine whether the government has proven a specified aggravating factor beyond a reasonable doubt.... Most of these aggravating factors -- such as killing more than one person or being the triggerman in a felony murder -- are similar to those found in civilian capital punishment schemes. Other factors -- such as committing an offense with the intent to avoid hazardous duty or knowingly endangering a mission -- are unique to the military. [The panel] must then weigh all of the aggravating evidence in the case against any evidence in extenuation and mitigation. A death penalty may not be imposed unless the members unanimously conclude that the aggravating circumstances substantially outweigh the mitigating circumstances. Finally, even if every member agrees upon the existence of an aggravating factor and concludes that the evidence in aggravation outweighs the extenuating and mitigating evidence, any member is still free to choose a sentence other than death. Thus, members must unanimously conclude that death is an appropriate sentence. When a death sentence is imposed, the record is initially reviewed by the convening authority, who has the power to reduce sentences and to set aside guilty findings.... The convening authority can reduce the sentence, but cannot increase it. And this review is no mere rubberstamp. Several years ago, a Marine Corps general commuted an adjudged death sentence to imprisonment for life. If the convening authority approves the death sentence, the condemned servicemember will be moved to military death row.... The record of trial then goes before one of the military justice system's four intermediate appellate courts: the Army, Navy-Marine Corps, Air Force, or Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals.... If the Court of Criminal Appeals affirms a death sentence, the case then goes before the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, as the Court of Military Appeals was renamed in 1994. The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces is a five-member Article 1 court that sits atop the military justice system. Its judges are civilians appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate to serve 15-year terms. [If the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces affirms the sentence], the
case is eligible for Supreme Court review. The Supreme Court's
certiorari jurisdiction over military justice cases... was enacted in
1983.... When the Supreme Court affirms [the sentence] or denies
certiorari in a military capital case, the death sentence is then
reviewed by the executive branch. If the President approves the death
sentence, the condemned servicemember can seek habeas relief from the
Article III judiciary. If the habeas petition is ultimately denied, the
condemned servicemember will be led from death row down a flight of
stairs to the USDB's death chamber. There he will be strapped to a
gurney and executed by lethal injection. Racial Disparity There is racial disparity on the military's death row. Of those on the military death row today, five are African-American, one is a Pacific Islander, and only one is Caucasian. Whereas nationwide, about half of the 3,600 death row inmates are members of a minority, the military has an 86 percent minority death row population. According to Dwight Sullivan (see above), "While the number of
servicemembers under death sentence is fairly small, the racial
disparity in military death penalty cases has been distressingly
persistent. During World War II, African-Americans accounted for less
than 10 percent of the Army. Yet, of the 70 soldiers executed in "The death sentences adjudged since 1961 have continued to fall disproportionately on minority servicemembers. In 1983, when the Court of Military Appeals issued its Matthews opinion invalidating the military death penalty, seven servicemembers were on death row. Five were African-American, one was Latino, and one was Caucasian." In addition to the racial disparity among death row inmates, there is
also racial disparity among victims. Each time an African American has
been sent to the military's death row, the case has involved a white
victim. (R. Serrano, "A Grim Life on Military Death Row," For more information about racial disparities, see DPIC's Race and the Death Penalty page.
Military Death Sentence Vacated An Army Court of Criminal Appeals has vacated the death sentence of William
Kreutzer, a Additional
Information
Executions
in the (source: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org) In
December *Starred
dates and names indicate that the original was only partly legible. The
following Articles, as defined by the Uniform Code of Military
Justice, are cited on the list: Articles 58 (Execution
of confinement), 61 (Waiver or withdrawal of appeal), 64 (Review
by a judge advocate), 65 (Disposition of records), 66 (Review
by Court of Military Review), 69 (Review in the office of the
Judge Advocate General), 85 (Desertion), 86 (Absent
without leave), 89 (Disrespect toward superior commissioned
officer), 92 (Failure to obey order or regulation), 93 (Cruelty
and maltreatment), 94 (Mutiny or sedition), and 96 (Releasing
prisoner without proper authority).
*Starred dates and names indicate that the original was only partly legible. The following executions were listed as a supplement to the original
handwritten list, under the heading "Death Sentence Ledger"
Last
Soldier to Die at Los Angeles, He
was 18 when he joined the Army, 19 when he was court-martialed and three
days past his 26th birthday when he was hanged. It
was the only time he ever was in trouble. His
birth certificate said he was "colored," and his death
certificate said "negroid." Karl Menninger, the renowned Kansas
psychiatrist, lobbied the Kennedy White House not to take the life of
this "undistinguished epileptic Negro soldier." He
was the last man to die by military execution and the only one put to
death for rape during peacetime. He
died for raping a white girl in He
was Pvt. John Arthur Bennett. Born into a share-cropping family in
southern When
it came down to his own final day, April 12, 1961, it would be one of
the busiest afternoons in the new Kennedy Administration. Soviet
cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had beaten the Bennett,
who from his isolated cell could not know of that day's crush of history,
wired the White House, begging for mercy "while I still have a few
hours left." The reply-from a White House underling-was a terse and
swift no. And then, as the clock moved past midnight on a stormy It
took him 16 minutes and 5 seconds to die. "I
remember they started to rush him up the ramp toward me," said the
hangman, a retired Army first sergeant who, because of his past, lives
in anonymity today. "He
kept looking around and back and forth and he kept saying, Where's the
chaplain? Where's the chaplain?' "But
the last person he saw was me." Bennett
had been convicted in January, 1955, for the rape and attempted murder
of an 11-year-old Austrian girl. Heavily intoxicated, he crossed a field
searching for a brothel outside his Army base, came instead across a
series of private homes, then staggered back across a little creek.
There, he stumbled across the girl, who was returning home from
Christmas shopping. He raped her and tried to drown her. His
military trial was held in just a month. The court-martial jury
deliberated 25 minutes. Bennett never testified in his own defense. The
sentence: Death. Several
months later, his mother, Ollie Bennett, told Red Cross authorities that
as a child, John would "hear voices in his sleep." He often
rose out of bed in search of the speaker. Other times he had night
terrors and was hard to wake. He "was afraid of storms," his
mother said, "and when approached would run and hunt a dark place
to hide." "He
was always different," she said. "He would get very mad with
the others, and then they would let him alone." The
family history was replete with alcoholism, hypertension and mental
illness, and Bennett suffered from epilepsy. He dropped out of school in
the seventh grade and learned to drink "corn liquor" and
aspirin with wine. He fathered a baby out of wedlock before he left to
join the Army. Baseball
was his greatest passion. For recreation he would throw a baseball at
the prison walls, slamming it so hard that it would bounce right back. Each
year another black soldier was taken out to the gallows. Bennett's time
was drawing ever near. The military appellate courts confirmed his death
sentence. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the death warrant. The
federal courts in A
third date was set: a minute after midnight on April 13, 1961. Bennett
found a civil rights attorney from In
"I
assume Negro soldiers are more difficult because of education and having
leanings toward getting into trouble," White said. "That's
true," said Gen. Todd, "but it's something that, without hard
and fast statistics, you just can't talk about." In
another conversation, White added: "The last thing I would want to
do is let this boy out because he is colored." They
also thought that if the Army could contact the victim and her family
and the family would agree to mercy, then maybe Bennett should not be
hanged. Days
before the execution, the family responded, asking that Bennett be
spared. From
the mother: "I suffer terribly with my only child, but Bennett's
death cannot give us back her health." From
the father: "I know how hard it is for the parents when their own
child is so close to the verge of death." From
the victim: "Even his execution could not eradicate what has
happened." After
closely considering the appeals, Kennedy still did not act. "I
think the President did what he thought was right," White said in a
recent interview. In
one final shot on his last day, Bennett wired the President. "I beg
in the name of God . . . " he began the short telegram. It ended:
"Will you please in the name of God and mercy spare my life?" The
President, busy with world events, did not reply. It fell to White to
turn down Bennett's last plea. The word came just after Bennett had
finished a final dinner of fried shrimp, fresh frozen peaches and his
favorite, hot rolls and biscuits. He
was whisked from his cell and into the rain and up the scaffold. He had
been so afraid of rainstorms, and so by his side hurried the Rev. Thomas
Carter, the prison chaplain, using a penlight to read-shout,
actually-the 23rd and 46th Psalms as they rushed Bennett to the arms of
the executioner. The soldier's last words: "May God have mercy on your souls."
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