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Criminal cases in the U.S. Military are conducted in special courts and under laws that differ from the rest of the country's justice system. Executions in this system are extremely rare. There have been no executions since 1961. "The military is a community of solidarity, a brotherhood and sisterhood, all to its own," said Teresa Norris, a former military defense lawyer who still represents a soldier on death row. "There is a real reluctance to execute fellow soldiers unless it's absolutely the worst kind of case and this is the only way." In 1983, a number of death sentences were commuted to life when a military appeals court found the military death penalty unconstitutional. The law was revised in 1984. One of the most significant concerns about capital punishment in the military is the decentralized nature of its judicial system. Dwight Sullivan, a former Marine prosecutor, said, "Even if you have 2 identical cases, one being prosecuted by one commander at one base and the other being prosecuted by a commander at another base, you may have different outcomes because the commanders may have different philosophies." There are currently five inmates on the military death row in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, all of whose cases are under legal review. Three are black, two are white. The trial of Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, a psychiatrist charged with a deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, is scheduled to begin August 6.
(C. Carter, "Military death row: More than 50 years and no executions," CNN, July 28, 2013). See U.S. Military.
