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DOJ objects to stay of US military execution

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] US Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers on Tuesday filed a challenge to a federal judge's decision to stay the execution of convicted murder suspect US Army private Ronald Gray. Judge Richard Rogers for the US District Court for the District of Kansas last week ordered the stay of the execution, which had been scheduled for December 10, in order to give Gray the opportunity to challenge his sentence. Lawyers for Gray sought the stay, arguing that they could not make appeals based on changes in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) since Gray's conviction until after President George W. Bush approved his execution in July. DOJ lawyers objected to the stay, arguing that his defense has had ample opportunity to file appeals on his behalf. Gray's execution was the first military execution to be approved by a president since 1961. Gray was first tried by a civilian court for his connection to four murders and eight rapes in North Carolina in the mid-1980s. He pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and five counts of rape, and the court sentenced him to life in prison. Gray was then sentenced to death for murder and rape by a court-martial panel in 1988, a military sentence that requires presidential approval under the UCMJ. Gray later appealed his court-martial sentence, but the Court of Appeals for the Armed Services rejected Gray's appeal in 1999, and the US Supreme Court denied certiorari in 2001.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 03, 2008 (boomark / email).