President George W Bush has approved what
would be the first execution by the US military since 1961, though
court appeals are likely to continue delaying the 20-year-old case
indefinitely, the White House said late Monday. A Bush
spokeswoman issued a statement saying that Bush had given the go ahead
for a sentence of capital punishment to be carried out against Private
Ronald Gray, who was convicted by a military court in 1988 at Fort
Bragg, North Carolina, of the rapes and murders of two women, one a
fellow soldier and the other a cab driver, and the attempted murder of
a second servicewoman. In a state civilian court, he was convicted of two other murders and further rapes during the same 1986-87 crime spree.
It remains unclear what method of execution would be used by the
military, which has at least five other convicts on death row.
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