Did the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG) change the method of execution from hanging to a gunshot to the head? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for Navy JAG told Lead Stories on a June 17, 2022, phone call that this claim is false. According to deathpenaltyinfo.org, the only military execution is lethal injection. The military death penalty is rarely used outside times of war and no one has been sentenced to death under military tribunals. Real Raw News, the publisher of this story, has a history of creating false stories under the guise of humor, parody and satire.
The story appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on June 9, 2022, titled "JAG Amends Method of Execution" (archived here), which opened:
The U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps has amended how it will carry out future Deep State executions, a JAG source told Real Raw News. In the last two years all but two convicted Deep Staters were hanged by the neck until dead, a process JAG now says is tedious, time-consuming, and prone to mishaps. As a result, anyone convicted of capitol crime and sentenced to death will get a bullet to the brain.
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JAG Amends Method of Execution | Real Raw News
A spokesperson for Navy JAG told Lead Stories on a June 17, 2022, phone call that this claim was not true.
In the modern era, military members who are sentenced to death have it done by lethal injection, not by hanging or being shot.
According to deathpenaltyinfo.org, a national nonprofit organization, the military death penalty is used rarely outside of times of war. Death row for military members is located in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the few that are there have been convicted of murder.
The deathpenaltyinfo.org article says the military has jurisdiction over the tribunals where people are accused of unlawful conduct associated with wartime. No one has been sentenced to death under these tribunals.
Real Raw News has a long history of publishing false claims in mock news stories, many of them about convictions and executions of various public figures at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. For example, the site reported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was hanged (she wasn't); former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta was executed (he wasn't); and that "the military" convicted former Attorney General William Barr on charges of treason (it didn't).
The website for Real Raw News includes a disclaimer that warns readers not to take its content too seriously. Specifically, it says:
Information on this website is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes. This website contains humor, parody, and satire. We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice on legal counsel.
(Source: RealRawNews.com screenshot taken Tue Aug 3 16:39:48 UTC 2021)
Lead Stories has covered claims published by Real Raw News in the past. Previous Lead Stories debunks of Real Raw News items are collected here.
