The death penalty is a great debate that has being going on for many years. When you enlist in the military you wave all your civilian rights and live under only certain parts of the constitution. In a way you become property of the Federal Government and not a citizen. This is a very noble action and those who are willing to give their lives for our country should be admired by all. One thing that happens when you join is that you can now be sentenced with the death penalty. Here is a link to some facts about the death penalty in relation to the Military. It is very interesting to read about the thought behind decisions resulting in the death penalty. I am pro death penalty, but I do question whether the government should be allowed to take the life of someone who is willing to give their life in the name of their country.
I think this is a very interesting topic. When people think of the United States military most think of all the brave people that are willing to risk their lives to protect the country. People in the military do have to live by other higher standards, but at the same time I feel that any person who takes another persons life (not during war) should not be able to roam free. Since I am for the death penalty to a certain extent I think that military personel should have to live by the same rules as normal citizens but are obviously held at higher standards for good reason. The people in the United States military are trained to be human weapons and possess skills that are not normal to deploy in normal society and a person that takes advantage of this training in nonacceptablt ways should be punished. After reading the descriptions of the cases of the people that are currently on death row through the military, I concluded that even thought they are military personel, the crimes in which they committed should not be accepted in any society. So in conclusion I agree with the idea that military personel are susceptible to the death penalty mainly because of the intense training that they go through and the idea that they should be respected and held at a higher standard.
I appreciate your post. I also find this interesting because the death penalty differs from state to state and it seems as though the military is a state on its own. I am personally against the death penalty because it has not be proven to deter criminals and is more costly because of the amount of appeals found in cases possibly leading to the death penalty. I also think that in some cases life is a harsher punishment for the offenders. That is a psychological debate in itself.
I had no idea this was going on in the military. I'm not going to deny I very much agree with it though. Since the dawning of our country treason has been an ultimate sentence for death, as it should be. If you can't respect our country, feel free to leave, if you're going to criticize our civil liberties then you shouldn't enjoy our freedoms! When you join the U.S. Military you are turning over all of your individual rights to become one in the protection of your country. To me the military is one of the highest honors of our country, and if you mess up in any way you more than likely deserve the punishment. In the featured site there is a man who was tried for the murder of 2 other marines, one who was tried for rape and attempted murder,etc. These are crimes in our common society, the prior punishable by law, but you throw those into the high society of the mitlitary anything that causes you to smear the name of the honorable should be harshly punished. I very much agree with the site and am glad to hear it is effect like that.
Quick note; I read this post back in February, but I wanted some other posters to share their views. Anyways, I wanted to share some opinions, views, and facts. As I've said before, I am part of our military. Yes, when a citizen swears to defend our nation, we sacrifice some rights. In many cases, we surrender our rights ranging from freedom of speech, illegal search and seizure, and so on. Every law we can be punished for is spelled under the UCMJ, the Uniform Code of Military Justice. If the crime is deemed severe by the military police or the perpetrator's chain of command, there will be a trial where the jury is made up of officers. Unlike the civilian courts, a secret ballot is used and 2/3rds vote is enough to convict someone.
Anyways, onto the death penalty. Every case is unique and depends on circumstances. Matter of fact, the punishment for being AWOL (Absent Without Leave)all depends on what the individual reports when returning; truth or a lie. Then, there's desertion. The punishment for desertion can be death. What's the difference? Interpretation. If someone went AWOL, but was captured, it all depends if others determined if the perpetrator would return to the military or leave all together. Even if the perpetrator failed to report by one minute and was caught, they could be trialed for desertion.
Now, here's a personal story from my experiences. I spent a year in Afghanistan on a base less than 5 miles from the Pakistan border. Our entire base personnel was around 30, so danger was a constant in our lives. The good news is after 8 years of Americans coming in and out, our team completed the mission of training the nationals to be self-sufficient police. We still lost one of our team members after we were separated for new duty assignments. The cause was not hostile action but friendly fire. He was accidentally shot by a hometown friend cleaning his weapon three rooms over. I was beyond pissed when I found out it was friendly fire. The person had neglected to verify the status of his weapon which caused a fatality. Long story short, I found out that this servicemember would be discharged from the military dishonorably for his actions. Again, I was pissed that this was the UCMJ's course of action, but I later found out he was a hometown friend. Although many would consider the punishment light, I realized his punishment is far greater than anything that could have been done. He would have to live the rest of his life knowing that he killed a close friend by accident.
Yes, military standards in the law are higher, but the punishment can vary. Like I stated before, desertion can carry the death penalty, but only one person has ever been executed for this. There have only been 135 executions since 1916 in the military. Each criminal case is heavily weighed by the actions and history of the perpetrator when determining an appropriate punishment.