A military execution requires approval from the US president, according to military law.
It also requires appellate review and a final judgment on its legality to move forward.
The last military execution took place in 1961, when a US Army private was hanged after being convicted of raping an 11-year-old Austrian girl. The execution was authorised by then-President Dwight D Eisenhower and took place despite the victim’s family asking his successor, John F Kennedy, for clemency.
The last military execution by firing squad took place in January 1945, when a young US Army deserter, Eddie Slovik, was shot during the final months of the Second World War.
While Trump has never publicly advocated for a public execution, he has long supported the death penalty. In 1989, for example, he took out large ads in The New York Times calling for the execution of the Central Park Five – who had been convicted of rape and assault charges but were later exonerated.
The US government did not carry out executions for 17 years before the final year of Trump’s first term as president, when the government conducted a flurry of 13 executions.
Upon returning to office last January, Trump swiftly overturned predecessor Joe Biden’s moratorium on federal executions and signed an executive order aimed at “restoring” the death penalty and “protecting public safety”.
