Military Execution Approved by President Bush

President Bush on Monday upheld the death penalty of Army private Ronald A. Gray, approving the first military execution since 1961. Gray had had been convicted in connection with a spree of four murders and eight rapes in the Fayetteville, N.C., area over eight months in the late 1980s while stationed at Fort Bragg.

Although the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty in the military in 1996, no one has been executed since President Ronald Reagan reinstated capital punishment in 1984 for military crimes.

The last military execution was ordered by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1957, although it was not carried out by hanging until 1961. President John F. Kennedy was the last president to face the question, in 1962, but commuted the sentence to life in prison.

"While approving a sentence of death for a member of our armed services is a serious and difficult decision for a commander in chief, the president believes the facts of this case leave no doubt that the sentence is just and warranted," White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement first reported by the Associated Press.

The order approved by President Bush is not the final move in the Gray's case since further litigation is expected that could take years to reach a resolution. Also, it also remains uncertain whether or not if the sentence will be commuted or if any appeal attempts will be successful.

The military death penalty has been dormant for so long that it was also unclear what the method of execution would be.

The Supreme Court ruled in April to uphold the most common method of capital punishment used across the U.S., the three-drug mix of lethal-injection drugs. In Baze v. Rees, the Justices maintained the opinion that death by lethal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

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