While I like your post and mostly agree with you, there's not even a slim chance that if this rat went to a military tribunal, he would be looking at the death penalty. He actually had a better chance of being sentenced to death by the federal court, wouldn't he? I can't recall the last time a military court sentenced someone to the death penalty, but I could look it up and see.
Last military death sentence carried out in 1961, U.S. Army Private John A. Bennett.
Sounds like you may be thinking of courts martial, where U.S. servicemen are tried for crimes. And I don't doubt that almost no executions are involved there.
But military tribunals are pretty much whatever the President wants them to be. And if most Americans had as much courage of their convictions as they once did, a lot of these bastards would have been executed already. Instead, there is much hand wringing and navel gazing about the poor darlings' supposed rights (almost none of which they actually have), and President Limpwrist sets them free to murder again. Recall that the sob sister in the White House even wanted to give a full trial in federal court to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the miserable son of a whore who masterminded the murders of almost three thousand people on 9/11, even though he had no right whatever to any such thing. He should have been hanged more than a decade ago, but instead he has never even been tried, and continues to live in relative comfort at Guantanamo. That is an outrage.
Military tribunals, or military commissions, have been used from the beginning of the U.S., and they have often resulted in executions. A very early example is the trial of Benedict Arnold's British liaison, Major John Andre. Andre was captured in civilian clothes behind American lines, and in his boot were documents Arnold, then the commandant of West Point, had given him revealing the plans for the fort's defense. General Washington commissioned a panel of senior officers to try Andre, and he was soon convicted and sentenced to death. Andre entreated Washington to be shot as a soldier, but he got no sympathy and was soon hanged as a spy.
In 1942, six Nazi saboteurs--one a U.S. citizen--who had landed here by U-boat were captured. President Roosevelt made very clear he wanted things done fast. His Attorney General,
in just six days, drew up rules for a military commission. Some of the best criminal defense lawyers in the U.S. were called in, but despite their efforts the evidence against the men was just too strong, and they were convicted of various war crimes. They filed a habeas petition challenging the legality of their detention and trial, and a federal district court denied it. The Supreme Court then agreed to hear their appeal from this denial immediately, and quickly denied their petition again--for good. All six were then electrocuted, the whole process taking less than two months from the time the U-boats landed them here.
For anyone who is interested, the best source I know of on military commissions, unlawful combatants, and the laws governing all this is the Nazi saboteurs case, Ex Parte Quirin, 317 U.S. 1 (1942). Another interesting case is Ex Parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866), which involved an Indiana man the
Union army had tried and sentenced to death for various pro-Confederate actions.
