U.S. Military Personnel Face Death Penalty

Professor Diane Marie Amann, a legal expert in international criminal law and international human rights law, provided commentary in an article on the Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency Web site.

Two U.S. army servicemen face charges that can carry the death penalty for crimes committed in Iraq. Sergeant Paul Cortez and Private First Class Jesse Spielman are scheduled to appear separately in military court in mid-December. Together with three other defendants, the men are accused of raping a 14-year-old girl and murdering her and her family last March near the Iraqi city of Al-Mahmudiyah.

These cases, along with others, raise the question of whether military personnel could be sentenced to death, even if the crimes for which they are found guilty were committed in wartime. Amann said that military services in other countries deal with these situation differently than in the U.S. She said soldiers found guilty of war crimes in Europe, for instance, would face life imprisonment. She pointed out that even in international tribunals that dealt with wartime crimes committed in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, former military officers found guilty of horrific crimes received life imprisonment,IPS/December 5