US Army to perform first execution in nearly 50 years

pO157.

Posted to Politics on Fri Nov 21, 2008 at 06:41:59 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

A military press release announced that the US Army intends to execute Pvt. Ronald A. Gray, a quadruple killer and serial rapist, on December 10th. Pvt. Gray would be the first soldier executed by the military since 1961.

In 1961, Pvt. John Bennett was hanged for rape and premeditated murder. Since then hundreds have been executed around the nation by state and federal governments while the US military has not exacted the ultimate penalty from a service member. Until December 10th when a former Specialist, army cook, and spree killer is scheduled to die.

Pvt. Gray has been on Death Row in Leavenworth for decades. He was convicted by a military court for two 1987 murders, rapes and assorted other crimes which lead to his death sentence. He later plead guilty to murder in North Carolina state court for two other murders and was sentenced to eight life sentences there. Over the past 21 years the case has been slowly working its way through the appeals process and ended up on the President's desk. In July, President Bush became the first Commander in Chief since Eisenhower to order the execution of a military member (President Eisenhower ordered the death of Pvt. Bennett).

Opponents to Pvt. Gray's execution point out that 86% of the military death row are members of a minority group, which is larger than the estimated 50% of 3,600 condemned prisoners nationwide who are non-Caucasian.

Times have changed since the old days (pdf) of hanging and musket carrying execution squads, so Pvt. Gray will be executed by lethal injection at a Federal Prison in Indiana borrowed for that purpose. The US Military does not operate an execution facility at the US Disciplinary Barracks, Leavenworth.