The United States Army is considering execution of the former US Army soldier and rape and murder convict Ronald Gray. Gray could be the first death-row inmate to be executed by the military in over half-a-century.
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Pvt. Ronald Gray was arrested in January 1987 for the rape of a woman near Fairlane Acres Mobile Home Park. Soon after his arrest, police also found the bodies of Kimberly Ann Ruggles and Pvt. Laura Lee Vickery-Clay, who were also raped, sodomised and stabbed by Gray. He was implicated after his fingerprints were found in the victims' cars. Gray pleaded guilty on two counts of murder and fiver other rape charges.
Charged and guilty for multiple counts of murder and rape
Gray, 51, was found guilty on all charges by a military jury eight years ago which sentenced him to death. The former Army soldier also received more than eight life sentences from a civilian court for his earlier convictions.
Gray has filed appeals for more than 25 years claiming that he had an incompetent lawyer and that the the military courts did not have the proper jurisdiction to prosecute him. He had also submitted an appeal claiming that he was not mentally stable enough to stand trial. However, all his appeals were denied by the courts.
The US District Judge J Thomas Marten in Wichita, Kansas denied Gray's request for a further stay on his execution last week. The judge said that a previous stay on his execution was not in effect now. The prosecutors, in a brief filed on December 9, said that the perpetrator "seems to believe that he is entitled to an indefinite federal stay of execution, while he exhausts his remedies in the military courts. This is not the law."
Longest-serving inmate
He has been on death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, since 1988, and is the longest-serving inmate. Reports state that Gray's execution could take place in the next 30 days at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
"This is life-changing news, we've been waiting for years," Honey Rosalie Schlehuber of Chickasha, Oklahoma said. Schlehuber was 12-years of age, when her sister Tammy Cofer Wilson, was killed by Gray, Fayette (North Carolina) Observer reported. Wilson's nude body was found by her husband in a wooded area near a mobile home park on December 12, 1986. The victim was 18-years of age at the time.
"I was in the back of the house when I heard my entire family scream and cry. It was so loud, all the screams. I will never, ever forget the cries as my mom and dad found out what happened to her. This is not just something you get over. It's having to lie to someone when they ask what happened to your sister. To this day, I can't speak of it without tears," Schlehuber said.
Execution by lethal injection
Only the President of the United States can approve a military death sentence in the military courts. Reports state that the last president to approve a death sentence in military was John F Kennedy, who authorised the death of John Bennett in 1961. Bennett was guilty of raping and attempting to kill an 11-year-old Australian girl.
The method of the execution currently followed by the American military is through a lethal injection.
