Summary execution

<h2 id="military-jurisdiction">Military jurisdiction</h2>

<p>Under <a href="/facts/Military_law/Bq3r5mqd">military law</a>, summary execution is illegal in almost all circumstances, as a <a href="/facts/Military_tribunal/Bq3r5mqd">military tribunal</a> 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.
</p>
<h3>Prisoners of war</h3>
<p>Major treaties such as the <a href="/facts/Geneva_Conventions/692ICAy0">Geneva Conventions</a> and <a href="/facts/Hague_Conventions_of_1899_and_1907/h61yeIjd">Hague Conventions</a>, and <a href="/facts/Customary_international_law/9VzEfGem">customary international law</a> from history, protect the rights of captured <a href="/facts/Regular_army/zwIazuvu">regular</a> and <a href="/facts/Irregular_military/8goYhQkn">irregular enemy soldiers</a>, along with <a href="/facts/Civilians/ApBkSzGP">civilians</a> of enemy states. <a href="/facts/Prisoners-of-war/X22JC3Fj">Prisoners-of-war</a> (POWs) must be treated in carefully defined ways which definitively ban summary execution, as the <a href="/facts/Additional_Protocol_II/cKYCsjje">Second Additional Protocol</a> of the Geneva Conventions (1977) states:
</p>
<blockquote><p>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.</p>— Second Protocol of the Geneva Conventions (1977), Article 6.2</blockquote>
<h3>Exceptions to prisoners-of-war status</h3>
<p>However, some classes of <a href="/facts/Combatants/owQ3fXXe">combatants</a> may not be accorded POW status, but that definition has broadened to cover more classes of combatants over time. In the past, summary execution of <a href="/facts/Pirate/7HjKaWFC">pirates</a>, <a href="/facts/Spy/oaDJ5fAd">spies</a>, and <a href="/facts/Francs-tireurs/KUB3XFf6">francs-tireurs</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a> have been performed and considered legal under existing international law.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> Francs-tireurs (a term originating in the <a href="/facts/Franco-Prussian_War/DU9aBkVB">Franco-Prussian War</a>) are enemy civilians or <a href="/facts/Militia/c7CHBd54">militia</a> who continue to fight in territory occupied by a warring party and do not wear military uniforms, and may otherwise be known as <a href="/facts/Guerrilla/IMWNg4bI">guerrillas</a>, <a href="/facts/Partisan_(military)/Nxwjb1VS">partisans</a>, <a href="/facts/Insurgents/mvmqQYJt">insurgents</a>, etc. Though they could be legally jailed or executed by most armies a century ago, the experience of World War II influenced nations occupied by foreign forces to change the law to protect this group. Many of the post-war victors, such as France, Poland, and the USSR, had the experience of resistance fighters being summarily executed by the <a href="/facts/Axis_powers/Q3z1D8R9">Axis</a> if they were captured. The war also influenced them to make sure that <a href="/facts/Commandos/R75nynuA">commandos</a> 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 <a href="/facts/Commando_Order/34mX1fUc">Commando Order</a>.
</p>

<p>The Commando Order was issued by <a href="/facts/Adolf_Hitler/3zyXG1L8">Adolf Hitler</a> on October 18, 1942, stating that all <a href="/facts/Allies_of_World_War_II/YzCdtjDY">Allied</a> <a href="/facts/Commando/R75nynuA">commandos</a> encountered by German forces in Europe and Africa should be killed immediately without trial, even in proper uniforms or if they attempted to surrender. Any commando or small group of commandos or a similar unit, agents and <a href="/facts/Saboteurs/R7IXqV4e">saboteurs</a> not in proper uniforms who fell into the hands of the German military forces by some means other than direct combat (through the police in occupied territories, for instance) were to be handed over immediately to the <a href="/facts/Sicherheitsdienst/3fRyhRLu">Sicherheitsdienst</a> (SD, Security Service). The order, which was issued in secret, made it clear that failure to carry out such orders by any commander or officer would be considered to be an act of negligence punishable under German military law.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> This was in fact the second "Commando Order",<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> the first being issued by Generalfeldmarschall <a href="/facts/Gerd_von_Rundstedt/SIgdR8AX">Gerd von Rundstedt</a> on July 21, 1942, stipulating that parachutists should be handed over to the <a href="/facts/Gestapo/X0bHmeX1">Gestapo</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> Shortly after World War II, at the <a href="/facts/Nuremberg_Trials/Xk8q1YzG">Nuremberg Trials</a>, the Commando Order was found to be a direct breach of the <a href="/facts/Laws_of_war/utYdPbBD">laws of war</a>, and German officers who carried out illegal executions under the Commando Order were found guilty of <a href="/facts/War_crimes/36qQAugC">war crimes</a>.
</p><p>According to Article 4 of the <a href="/facts/Third_Geneva_Convention/3qaUnd2o">Third Geneva Convention</a> of 1949, irregular forces are entitled to prisoner of war status if they are commanded by a person responsible for the subordinates, have a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance, carry arms openly, and conduct their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war. If they do not meet all of those conditions, they may be considered <i>francs-tireurs</i> (in the original sense of "<a href="/facts/Illegal_combatant/7VohS0M9">illegal combatant</a>") and punished as criminals in a military jurisdiction, which may include summary execution.
</p><p>Soldiers who are wearing uniforms of the opposing army <i>after the start of combat</i> may be considered illegal combatants and subject to summary execution. Many armies have performed that kind of <a href="/facts/False_flag/zRUP3phU">false flag</a> ruse in the past, including both German and US <a href="/facts/Special_forces/KzAwTazD">special forces</a> during World War II. However, if soldiers remove their disguises and put on proper insignia <i>before the start of combat</i> in such an operation, they are considered legal combatants and must be treated as <a href="/facts/Prisoner_of_war/X22JC3Fj">prisoners of war (POWs)</a> if captured. That distinction was settled by a military tribunal in the postwar trial of <a href="/facts/Otto_Skorzeny/n6aT6gPR">Otto Skorzeny</a>, who led <a href="/facts/Operation_Greif/uW0Wb4vJ">Operation Greif</a>, an infiltration mission in which German commandos wore US uniforms to infiltrate US lines during the <a href="/facts/Battle_of_the_Bulge/GaWpNaw5">Battle of the Bulge</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a>
</p>
<h3>Under martial law</h3>
<p>Within a state's policy, <a href="/facts/Martial_law/fUKQMx0b">martial law</a> 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.
</p><p>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 <a href="/facts/Human_rights/WMW5XCdM">human rights</a>.
</p>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Arbitrary_arrest_and_detention/MA31VM9a">Arbitrary arrest and detention</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Encounter_killings_by_police/cE1047nJ">Encounter killings by police</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Extrajudicial_punishment/zEHqwaF6">Extrajudicial punishment</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Extrajudicial_killing/aXmKesUe">Extrajudicial killing</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Forced_disappearance/9hKI94ns">Forced disappearance</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Genocide_justification/JKj8UD0C">Genocide justification</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/License_to_kill_(concept)/bvKLXIBu">License to kill (concept)</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Lynching/e23NmEsn">Lynching</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Retributive_justice/l0YbzPaC">Retributive justice</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Right_to_a_fair_trial/UguaUXCr">Right to a fair trial</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Vigilante/y9NdbxYp">Vigilante</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Ras_Sedr_massacre/3Y2JVSSe">Ras Sedr massacre</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Ticehurst R (1997-04-30). The Martens clause and the laws of armed conflict.  Archived 2007-04-15 at the Wayback Machine Int Rev RC #317, @ pp 125–134. Seen 2010-06-30. <a href="http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/57JNHY" target="_blank">http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/57JNHY</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>Law Of The Sea. <a href="https://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/part7.htm" target="_blank">https://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/part7.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>USGPO Translation of order, UK: UWE, archived from the original on 2007-06-18 <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070618025102/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/commando1.htm" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20070618025102/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/commando1.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>"The Commando Order", History learning site, UK <a href="http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/commando_order.htm" target="_blank">http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/commando_order.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:5"><p>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. <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:6"><p>Gary D. Solis (15 February 2010). The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War. Cambridge University Press. p. 432. ISBN 978-0-5218-7088-7. <a href="978-0-5218-7088-7" target="_blank">978-0-5218-7088-7</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Summary execution open-in-new

Summary execution