Summary execution

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Saigon during the Tet Offensive
in 1968.

In civil and military jurisprudence, summary execution is the putting to death of a person accused of a crime without the benefit of a

summary offense, as in the case of a drumhead court-martial, but the term usually denotes the summary execution of a sentence of death. Under international law, it is a combatant's refusal to accept an opponent's lawful surrender and the combatant's provision of no quarter
, by killing the surrendering opponents.

Summary executions have been practiced by

counter-insurgency, terrorism
, and any other situation which involves a breakdown of the normal procedures for handling accused prisoners, civilian or military.

Military jurisdiction

This painting, The Third of May 1808 by Francisco Goya, depicts the summary execution of Spaniards by French forces after the Dos de Mayo Uprising in Madrid.

Under

military tribunal
would be the competent judge needed to determine guilt and declare a sentence of death. However, there are certain exceptions to this rule in emergencies and warfare where summary execution is legal.

Prisoners of war

Major treaties such as the

Second Additional Protocol
of the Geneva Conventions (1977) states:

No sentence shall be passed and no penalty shall be executed on a person found guilty of an offence except pursuant to a conviction pronounced by a court offering the essential guarantees of independence and impartiality.

— Second Protocol of the Geneva Conventions (1977), Article 6.2

Exceptions to prisoners-of-war status

However, some classes of

commandos and other special forces who were caught deep behind enemy lines would be protected as POWs, rather than summarily executed as Hitler decreed through his 1942 Commando Order
.

Polish people being executed by a German firing squad in Kórnik, October 1939
The execution of 56 Polish citizens in Bochnia, near Kraków, during German occupation of Poland, December 18, 1939, in a reprisal for an attack on a German police office two days earlier by the underground organization "White Eagle"

The Commando Order was issued by

war crimes
.

According to Article 4 of the

illegal combatant
") and punished as criminals in a military jurisdiction, which may include summary execution.

Soldiers who are wearing uniforms of the opposing army after the start of combat may be considered illegal combatants and subject to summary execution. Many armies have performed that kind of false flag ruse in the past, including both German and US special forces during World War II. However, if soldiers remove their disguises and put on proper insignia before the start of combat in such an operation, they are considered legal combatants and must be treated as prisoners of war (POWs) if captured. That distinction was settled by a military tribunal in the postwar trial of Otto Skorzeny, who led Operation Greif, an infiltration mission in which German commandos wore US uniforms to infiltrate US lines during the Battle of the Bulge.[6]

Under martial law

Within a state's policy, martial law may be declared in emergencies such as invasions or insurrections, and in such a case constitutionally protected rights would be suspended. Depending on a state's interpretation of martial law, this may allow police or military forces to decide and carry out punishments that include death on its own citizens, in order to restore lawful authority or for other vital reasons.

That would not include killing a suspect who is directly endangering another's life, which is always legal for police, but executing a suspect under one's control as a punishment. Proving that a summary execution fell under the legal exception would be exceptionally difficult, as one would have to show why a judgment and sentence of death absolutely needed to be meted out on the spot. Hence, such extraordinary acts are almost always seen as illegal violations of human rights.

See also

References

  1. ^ Ticehurst R (1997-04-30). The Martens clause and the laws of armed conflict. Int Rev RC #317, @ pp 125–134. Seen 2010-06-30.
  2. ^ Law Of The Sea.
  3. ^ USGPO Translation of order, UK: UWE, archived from the original on 2007-06-18
  4. ^ "The Commando Order", History learning site, UK
  5. ^ CAB/129/28, British National Archives, ... under which parachutists who were taken prisoner not in connection with battle actions were to be transferred to the Gestapo by whom they were, in fact, killed.
  6. ISBN 978-0-5218-7088-7
    .
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