In France, there is a section of a Cemetery where the ‘Dishonored Dead’ are buried – 98 US service men executed for murder or rape (or both). When you look at their list, you will see that most were hanged rather than executed by firing squad.
At Nuremberg, the Nazi leaders convicted of war crimes who earned the death sentence were shocked to learn they would be hanged. Apparently death by firing squad recognized their military honor, while hanging treated them as common criminals. They were cremated, and their ashes dumped in a river so that none know where they rest.
Plot E, in Oisne-Aisne American Cemetery, is 100 meters from the main cemetery, and difficult to find and enter. The servicemen buried there were dishonorably discharged before being executed, usually by hanging. Private Slovak, the only man executed for desertion, merited a firing squad. Most of the murderers and rapists died by the rope.
The victims of those interred in Plot E were 26 fellow American soldiers (all murdered) and 71 British, French, German, Italian,[2] Polish and Algerian civilians (both male and female) who were raped or murdered. Totals 97 murder victims – and Eddie Slovak, executed for desertion, killed no one. (Ronald Reagan gave permission for Eddie to be exhumed from Plot E, and his body was returned to the US to be buried with his wife in Detroit. (more information is available at Oise-Aisne American Cemetery Plot E Explained
So I’m wondering why prisoner Nidal Hassan is getting a firing squad. Military precedent says he should get the rope for murdering fellow soldiers. Perhaps the decision was made because of the potential problems of dropping a man in a wheelchair through the gallows floor. Montana’s Vigilantes never had to cope with that challenge.
The murderers in Plot E at least have a grave that can (with a great deal of difficulty) be visited, even if the plot is maintained more as a bad example. I suspect that Hasan will be treated more like the Nazis and Bin Laden – cremated (and his ashes scattered across a hog confinement facility).
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