The use of capital punishment by the United States military is a legal punishment in martial criminal justice. As of 2026, capital punishment has not been carried out by the U.S. military since 1961, when Private John A. Bennett was executed for the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl. However, capital punishment has been used by the US military in conflicts through most of American history.
Reinstatement of the military death penalty The United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces ruled in 1983 that the military death penalty was unconstitutional, and after new standards intended to rectify the Armed Forces Court of Appeals' objections, the military death penalty was reinstated by an executive order of President Ronald Reagan the following year.The U.S. Military Death Penalty, Death Penalty Information Center
On July 28, 2008, President George W. Bush approved the execution of former United States Army Private Ronald A. Gray, who had been convicted in April 1988 of multiple murders and rapes. A month later, Secretary of the Army Pete Geren set an execution date of December 10, 2008, and ordered that Gray be put to death by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute. The military publicly released Gray's execution date on November 20, 2008. On November 26, however, Gray was granted a stay of execution by U.S. District Judge Richard Dean Rogers of Kansas. In December 2016, a Kansas federal judge, U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten, lifted Gray's stay.
On October 5, 2026, a spokesman for the military announced that President Donald Trump had approved the execution by firing squad of former Major Nidal Hasan, who murdered 13 people and injured 32 others during the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had requested that Trump approve Hasan's execution in September 2025. At the time of the announcement, Hasan was one of four inmates held on death row by the US military.
Capital crimes Currently, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 15 offenses are punishable by death. Under the following articles of the UCMJ, the death penalty can be imposed in both times of war and peace:
81 () – Conspiracy 94 () – Mutiny or sedition 99 () – Misbehavior before the enemy (including cowardice) 100 () – Subordinate compelling surrender 101 () – Improper use of countersign 102 () – Forcing a safeguard 103a () – Espionage 103b () – Aiding the enemy 110 () – Improper hazarding of vessel 118 () – Murder (premeditated murder or felony murder)
Another five provisions of the UCMJ carry a death sentence only if the crime is committed during times of war:
85 () – Desertion 89 () – Assaulting a superior commissioned officer 90 () – Willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer 95 () – Misbehavior of a sentinel or lookout 103 () – Lurking as a spy or acting as a spy
Under article 120, rape was once punishable by death, but the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Coker v. Georgia and Kennedy v. Louisiana that the capital punishment for rape is unconstitutional.
Legal process
Capital cases are tried in courts-martial before a panel of at least 12 military members. If the defendant is an enlisted service member, he or she may opt for at least one-third of the panel to also be of enlisted rank. All members of the panel must outrank the accused whenever logistically possible per 10 USC 825 (e)(1). The defendant cannot plead guilty to a capital offense if the government is seeking the death penalty. Unanimity is required for a conviction and is required separately to issue a death sentence during the penalty phase of the proceeding.
All death sentences are automatically appealed, first to the Court of Criminal Appeals for the military service concerned, then to the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. The sentence must be personally confirmed by the President of the United States.
Military executions would be conducted under regulations issued on October 30, 2023, and would ordinarily take place at the Special Housing Unit of the United States Disciplinary Barracks (USDB), Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, although alternative locations are possible (such as the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute, Indiana, where federal civilian death-row inmates are housed and executed). The death row inmates are confined at the USDB's Special Housing Unit and one at Camp Lejeune. All have been convicted of premeditated murder with aggravating factors.
Prior to 1991, the methods of execution approved by Headquarters, Department of the Army were hanging, firing squad (musketry) or electrocution. Electrocution was added as an option in the 1950s but could only be used at a specific confinement facility designated by Headquarters, and only be performed by a professional civilian executioner. An electric chair was installed at the old USDB but was never used. The last military execution occurred in 1961 by hanging. At present, military regulations allow the Secretary of the Army to specify a method of execution.
Extrajudicial executions and the War on Terrorism Under the Military Commissions Act of 2009, military commissions may be established in the field in time of war to expeditiously try and sentence enemy military personnel under the UCMJ for certain offenses. Controversially, this Act permits military commissions to try and sentence alien unprivileged enemy belligerent[s] accused of having engaged in or purposefully and materially support[ed] hostilities against the United States or its allies, without the benefit of some UCMJ protections. In a military commission trial, the death penalty may be imposed, but only in case of a unanimous verdict and sentencing decision. The United States has sought to try several of the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, as well as other alleged terrorists, before military commissions. However, these prosecutions have been fraught with legal challenges and delay resulting from evidence obtained during so-called enhanced interrogations, and therefore, as of 2025, have not resulted in any convictions that have led to death sentences.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks against the United States in 2001, Congress also passed an Authorization for Use of Military Force Resolution authorizing the President to: "use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons." The challenges associated with prosecutions by military commissions may have reinforced the American practice of relying on direct military action against terrorist leaders, including Osama bin Laden, rather than attempting their apprehension and prosecution. In 2025, President Donald Trump broadened this approach, conducting what United Nations legal experts determined to be extrajudicial executions of alleged drug traffickers.
Historical usage War of Independence The application of military law by the Continental Army was governed under 69 Articles of War adopted by the Second Continental Congress on 30 June 1775. In the 18th century, capital punishment was a common and accepted punishment in European armies for a range of offenses and the American Articles of War were no exception to this practice. General George Washington was said to have "approved hundreds of death sentences by either hanging or firing squad". Mutiny could be dealt with in a harsh manner, as occurred at Pompton, New Jersey in January 1781, where three soldiers (one being reprieved at the last minute) were selected to be shot from among a large group of mutineers. The firing squad was ordered to be composed of their fellow mutineers. Nevertheless, reprieves were not uncommon and it was not out of the ordinary for such reprieves to arrive at the last minute. Summary executions on the battlefield were also specifically authorized. Four days after the American defeat at the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777, General Washington issued general orders which stated the following:
Brigadiers and Officers commanding regiments are also to post some good officers in the rear, to keep the men in order, and if in time of action, any man, who is not wounded, whether he has arms or not, turns his back upon the enemy and attempts to run away, or retreats before orders are given for it, those officers are to instantly to put him to death. The man does not deserve to live who basely flies, breaks his solemn engagements, and betrays his country.
In keeping with norms accepted in most militaries of the day, the death penalty was also applied in cases of espionage against American forces; perhaps the most notable case being the execution of British Major John André in October 1780.
War of 1812/Creek War Throughout the nineteenth century, and into the twentieth, military justice in the US Army, including the application of the death penalty, was governed under revised Articles of War adopted by Congress in 1806. Over the course of the War of 1812, the use of the death penalty in the US Army expanded. The American army performed poorly in the initial stages of the war, with General William Hull surrendering Detroit in 1812. Hull was sentenced to death for neglect of duty and bad conduct, though his sentence was remitted by President Madison. In 1812, a total of four sentences of execution were pronounced with three being reprieved. However, in 1813 there were 43 executions authorised and only 11 reprieves. By 1814, 160 death sentences were pronounced but only 14 reprieved (including General Hull). In 1815, as the war ended, 53 soldiers were sentenced to death while 29 were reprieved.
In the Creek campaign of 1814, Private John Woods of the 39th United States Infantry was executed by a firing squad for assaulting a superior officer. Andrew Jackson was troubled by serious discipline problems with his militia and volunteers, particularly the militia from East Tennessee, so he prosecuted Private John Woods, only 18 years old, under allegedly false charges. Private Woods had spent his last month in the camp of the 39th. The night before his execution, the officers of the 39th signed and sent Jackson a petition asking for mercy. He not only failed to grant it, but made the 39th shoot him. The 39th was never happy with Jackson after that. Colonel John Williams, the commanding officer of the 39th United States Infantry, said in a campaign pamphlet in 1828 that Private Woods cried "bitterly and loudly"; the Jackson camp claimed he was belligerent and deserved to die.
Mexican–American War
The death penalty was enforced for varying crimes during the Mexican–American War from 1846 to 1848, including in cases of American soldiers or civilians committing crimes against the Mexican population. In 1847, Isaac Kirk, a black civilian working for the US Army, was hanged after being convicted by a military commission of rape and theft. However, the death penalty was most actively used for the offense of desertion, which was a significant problem for the US Army during the war. In the most infamous case, 50 former American soldiers who were serving with the Mexican Army's San Patricios Foreign Legion were executed for desertion. In what likely constitutes the second largest mass execution in American history, thirty of them were hanged at the Battle of Chapultepec in 1847 at the precise moment that the American flag replaced the Mexican flag atop the citadel.
American Civil War