Death Penalty Rare, Executions Rarer in Military. . . .

According to Mark Sherman, Associated Press Writer:

Though the suspect in the shooting rampage at Fort Hood could face the death penalty, he will be prosecuted in a military justice system where no one has been executed in nearly a half-century.

Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist alleged to have killed 13 people at the massive Army installation in Texas last week, might also benefit from protections the military provides defendants that are greater than those offered in civilian federal courts.

"Our military justice system is not bloodthirsty. That's clear," said Eugene R. Fidell, who teaches military law at Yale.

Much about Hasan's case will be decided by a senior Army officer — perhaps Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, Fort Hood's commander — including whether to seek the death penalty and, in the event Hasan is convicted of capital murder, whether to commute a possible death sentence to life in prison.

Before a military execution can be carried out, the president must personally approve.

George W. Bush signed an execution order last year for a former Army cook who was convicted of multiple rapes and murders in the 1980s, but a federal judge has stayed that order to allow for a new round of appeals in federal court. There hasn't been a military execution since 1961, though five men sit on the military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Federal civilian executions also are rare. Three men, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, have been killed by lethal injection in federal cases since 2001. Death penalties carried out by states are more common — Tuesday night's execution of John Allen Muhammad in the Washington, D.C., sniper case was Virginia's second of the year. . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . .A military jury must be unanimous to convict and sentence a defendant to death, which would be by lethal injection. Imposing a life sentence, however, requires only three-fourths of the jury to agree.

Fifteen members of the military have been sentenced to death in the past 25 years. Commanding generals commuted two of those sentences to life in prison and eight others were overturned on appeal.

The president's involvement also sets military death-penalty cases apart. The president can commute any federal death sentence, civilian or military but must personally approve each military execution and sign an order to carry it out.

"That's a political act," Silliman said. "The president of the United States personally approving a death penalty is a political act."

When President Bush signed Ronald Gray's execution order in July 2008, it was the first time a president had done so in 51 years.

In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower approved the execution of John Bennett, an Army private convicted of raping and attempting to kill an 11-year-old Austrian girl. Bennett was hanged in 1961.

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In this politically correct society do you really think the "muslim" sympathizers will put this scumbag to death?  Would Obama even sign the executive order?

I guarantee Texas Gov. Rick Perry would have no problem signing his death warrant. . . . .

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To read the full article go to:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091111/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_fort_hood_military_justice