Bush OKs execution of Army death row prisoner
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 12 minutes ago
President Bush on Monday approved the execution of an Army private,
the first time in over a half-century that a president has affirmed a
death sentence for a member of the U.S. military.
With his signature from the Oval Office, Bush said yes to the
military's request to execute Ronald A. Gray, the White House
confirmed. Gray had had been convicted in connection with a spree of
four murders and eight rapes in the Fayetteville, N.C., area over eight
months in the late 1980s while stationed at Fort Bragg.
"While approving a sentence of death for a member of our armed
services is a serious and difficult decision for a commander in chief,
the president believes the facts of this case leave no doubt that the
sentence is just and warranted," White House press secretary Dana
Perino said.
In the military courts, "Private Gray was convicted of committing
brutal crimes, including two murders, an attempted murder and three
rapes. The victims included a civilian and two members of the Army. ...
The president's thoughts and prayers are with the victims of these
heinous crimes and their families and all others affected."
Unlike in the civilian courts, a member of the U.S. armed forces
cannot be executed until the president approves the death sentence.
Gray has been on death row at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort
Leavenworth, Kan., since April 1988.
Members of the U.S. military have been executed throughout history,
but just 10 have been executed by presidential approval since 1951 when
the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military's modern-day legal
system, was enacted into law.
President Kennedy was the last president to stare down this
life-or-death decision. On Feb. 12, 1962, Kennedy commuted the death
sentence of Jimmie Henderson, a Navy seaman, to confinement for life.
President Eisenhower was the last president to approve a military
execution. In 1957, he approved the execution of John Bennett, an Army
private convicted of raping and attempting to kill an 11-year-old
Austrian girl. He was hanged in 1961.
The death penalty was outlawed between 1972 and 1984, when President Reagan
reinstated it.
Gray was held responsible for the crimes committed between April
1986 and January 1987 in both the civilian and military justice systems.
In civilian courts in North Carolina, Gray pleaded guilty to two
murders and five rapes and was sentenced to three consecutive and five
concurrent life terms.
He then was tried by general court-martial at the Army's Fort Bragg.
In April 1988, the court-martial convicted Gray of two murders, an
attempted murder and three rapes. He was unanimously sentenced to death.
The court-martial panel convicted Gray of:
_Raping and killing Army Pvt. Laura Lee Vickery-Clay of Fayetteville
on Dec. 15, 1986. She was shot four times with a .22-caliber pistol
that Gray confessed to stealing. She suffered blunt force trauma over
much of her body.
_Raping and killing Kimberly Ann Ruggles, a civilian cab driver in
Fayetteville. She was bound, gagged, stabbed repeatedly, and had
bruises and lacerations on her face. Her body was found on the base.
_Raping, robbing and attempting to kill Army Pvt. Mary Ann Lang
Nameth in her barracks at Fort Bragg on Jan. 3, 1987. She testified
against Gray during the court-martial and identified him as her
assailant. Gray raped her and stabbed her several times in the neck and
side. Nameth suffered a laceration of the trachea and a collapsed or
punctured lung.
The six-member court-martial panel returned its unanimous verdict
after about two hours of deliberations. The panel also reduced Gray
from Spec. 4 to private, forfeited all his pay and ordered him to be
dishonorably discharged from the Army.
Gray has appealed his case through the Army Court of Criminal
Appeals (then known as the U.S. Army Court of Military Review) and the
Court of Appeals for the Armed Services. In 2001, the Supreme Court
declined to hear the case.
Bush got the secretary of the Army's recommendation to approve
Gray's death sentence in late 2005. Since then, it's been under review
by the Bush administration, including the White House legal counsel.
Complicating the administration's deliberation was a case under review this
year by the Supreme Court.
The court ruled in April to uphold the most common method of
capital punishment used across the United States. The justices said the
three-drug mix of lethal-injection drugs used by Kentucky and most
other states does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The
ruling in the case of Baze v. Rees cleared the way for a resumption of
executions nationwide.
It was unclear where Gray would be executed. Military executions are handled by
the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Bush's decision, however, is not likely the end of Gray's legal
battle. Further litigation is expected and these types of death
sentence appeals often take years to resolve.
The military also has asked Bush to authorize the execution of
Dwight J. Loving, who has been at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., since 1989
after being convicted of killing two taxicab drivers while he was an
Army private at Fort Hood, Texas. But that request is not yet ripe for
a presidential decision. The White House declined to discuss the case.