Convicted U.S. Army Soldier Faces Execution For Rape, Murder

Fort Leavenworth, KS (AHN) - The U.S. Army has set a date for the execution of a former North Carolina soldier convicted of multiple rapes and murders in 1988. On December 10, Pvt. Ronald A. Gray will be the first man executed by the Army since 1961, when Pvt. John Bennett was hanged for raping and attempting to kill an 11-year-old Austrian girl.

The Army will put Gray to death by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana under an agreement with the Bureau of Prisons.

Gray, who is housed at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, was court-martialed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in 1988 and convicted for four murders and eight rapes in 1986 and 1987.

President George W. Bush approved Gray's death sentence in July after his appeals were denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.