January 28, 2006:
The U.S. Army has updated its regulations (Army Regulation 190–55) on execution. The United States has not executed a member of the armed forces since the 1960s, and the last one was for rape and attempted murder. In the last 90 years, the U.S. military has executed 135 of its troops. Only was one executed, during World War II, for desertion. All the rest were executed for the same kinds of crimes that can get you on death row as a civilians. Since the 1960s, all death sentences by military courts have been commuted to life in prison. However, there are currently half a dozen military inmates on death row (at the main military prison in Ft Leavenworth, Kansas). Only the president of the United States can order a military execution, which is now by lethal injection, not firing squad. The most recent changes in the regulations dealt with administrative issues (paperwork, who does what and where, and so on.)