What sentences could be imposed on a terrorist (caught alive)?
<p>If a terrorist is caught alive, what sentence would the United States Supreme Court impose? What about the highest court in the Russian Federation?</p>
<p>Is it death by hanging, life imprisonment, or execution with a revolver?</p>

<p>In the <a href="/questions/tagged/united-states" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;united-states&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;united-states&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="united-states-container">united-states</a>, the Supreme Court would not impose a sentence; it would only consider whether the trial court imposed the correct sentence, which could include a death sentence.</p>
<p>The U.S. Supreme Court has permitted death sentences for terrorists who have been captured alive. Most recently, the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty for the Boston Marathon bomber in in <a href="https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-tsarnaev-26" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>United States v. Tsarnaev</em>, 142 S. Ct. 1024 (2022)</a>.</p>
<p>I don't believe any state or the federal government uses hanging or revolvers to carry out death sentences at this point. Far more common are the electric chair, gas chambers, and lethal injections. Firing squads and hangings are technically legal <a href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution" rel="nofollow noreferrer">in some states</a>, but I don't know that any states actually use them.</p>
<p>In <a href="/questions/tagged/russia" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;russia&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;russia&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="russia-container">russia</a>, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2009-12-01/russia-death-penalty-ruled-unconstitutional/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">capital punishment is unconstitutional</a>. When it was in practice, it was reportedly carried out by a single executioner with a handgun. <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/03/10/russia-quits-europes-rule-of-law-body-sparking-questions-over-death-penalty-a76854" rel="nofollow noreferrer">There is talk of reinstating the death penalty</a>, and of course, there is reason to believe <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/russians-keep-mysteriously-falling-windows-deaths-1738954" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Russia continues to carry out capital punishment extrajudicially.</a></p>

<p><a href="/questions/tagged/united-kingdom" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;united-kingdom&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;united-kingdom&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="united-kingdom-container">united-kingdom</a></p>
<p>The maximum sentence for an act of terrorism, such as causing explosion likely to endanger life or property contrary to <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/46-47/3/section/2?timeline=false" rel="nofollow noreferrer">section 2</a> Explosive Substances Act 1883, is life imprisonment.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/crown-court/item/explosive-substances-terrorism-only/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Sentencing Council</a>'s guidelines on &quot;Explosive substances (terrorism only)&quot; gives the range for these offences as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>3 years’ custody – Life Imprisonment (minimum term 40 years)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In theory, a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/types-of-prison-sentence/life-sentences#:%7E:text=A%20whole%20life%20order%20means,except%20in%20exceptional%20compassionate%20circumstances." rel="nofollow noreferrer">whole life order</a> may be given, meaning they will...</p>
<blockquote>
<p>..never be released from prison, except in exceptional compassionate circumstances.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The only terrorism-related whole life orders given, that I can find, all relate to Northern Irish terrorism and have since been quashed following the Good Friday Agreement (source: <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prisoners_with_whole_life_orders" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia</a>)</p>
<p>The maximum minimum term that I have been able to find for terrorism offences is 50 years for David Copeland who was given six life sentences for his <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_London_nail_bombings" rel="nofollow noreferrer">1999 London nail bombing</a> campaign and is not due to be released until 2049 (at the earliest).</p>

<h1>Legally of the listed, only lifelong imprisonment is an option in either country</h1>
<h2><a href="/questions/tagged/united-states" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;united-states&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;united-states&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="united-states-container">united-states</a></h2>
<p>In the US, Terrorism is the crime that is concerned in the &quot;<em><a href="https://www.congress.gov/107/plaws/publ56/PLAW-107publ56.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">An Act
To deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the
world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other
purposes. &lt;&lt;NOTE: Oct. 26, 2001 -  [H.R. 3162]&gt;&gt;</a></em>&quot;  aka &quot;PATRIOT-ACT&quot;.</p>
<p>It dictates a couple of punishments, the longest of which is several modifications to existing laws. The longest time is <strong>20 years.</strong> Those are federal crimes, and you can not charge with it in state court. However, while terrorism is not punished by death penalty itself, many crimes of terrorists, such as conspiracy for murder, can be punished with the death penalty or lifelong imprisonment, and the person can be sentenced to death for those - but not for <em>terrorism</em> under the Patriot Act.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/federal-laws-providing-death-penalty" rel="nofollow noreferrer">other terrorism laws that contain a death penalty</a>, such as 18 USC 2332b, usually when the terroristic act killed people. However, in those cases, the death penalty is always to be carried out by <strong>lethal injection.</strong> Otherwise, <strong>lifelong imprisonment</strong> is an option.</p>
<p><a href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Death by firing squad</a> is only available on State Level in <a href="/questions/tagged/mississippi" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;mississippi&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;mississippi&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="mississippi-container">mississippi</a>, <a href="/questions/tagged/oklahoma" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;oklahoma&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;oklahoma&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="oklahoma-container">oklahoma</a>, <a href="/questions/tagged/utah" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;utah&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;utah&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="utah-container">utah</a>, <a href="/questions/tagged/south-carolina" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;south-carolina&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;south-carolina&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="south-carolina-container">south-carolina</a>. The latter practices Electrocution as primary method, the others lethal injection.</p>
<p>Hanging is/was in theory possible in <a href="/questions/tagged/delaware" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;delaware&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;delaware&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="delaware-container">delaware</a>, <a href="/questions/tagged/new-hampshire" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;new-hampshire&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;new-hampshire&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="new-hampshire-container">new-hampshire</a> and <a href="/questions/tagged/washington" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;washington&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;washington&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="washington-container">washington</a>, but in all three lethal injection is the primary method. Atop that, you can no longer be convicted with a death penalty in New-Hampshire due to a change in law, only lingering executions can happen there. In Delaware and Washington, the Death penalty might still be on the books, but the statutes are struck down.</p>
<h2><a href="/questions/tagged/russia" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;russia&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;russia&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="russia-container">russia</a></h2>
<p>There's a specific Terrorism Law in the Russian Federation, for which I could find an English translation: the  <a href="https://rm.coe.int/ct-legislation-russian-federation/16806415f5" rel="nofollow noreferrer">FEDERAL LAW NO. 35-FZ OF 6 MARCH 2006 ON COUNTERACTION AGAINST TERRORISM</a>. It does not contain a punishment statute, but that the military is allowed to be used. There is a <a href="https://www.refworld.org/topic,50ffbce5220,50ffbce5226,57a43c50c,0,RFERL,,RUS.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">2016 law</a>, which is known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarovaya_law" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Yarovaya law</a>. It increases prison sentences, but not mandates death penalties, especially not hanging or firing squad.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Russia" rel="nofollow noreferrer">in theory, the Death Penalty does exist in the Russian Federation</a>, there is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Russia#Moratorium" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Moratorium in place since 1999</a>, <a href="http://www.lenta.ru/news/2009/11/19/death/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">which was extended in 2009, when the death penalty was deemed unconstitutional</a>, and thus no new sentences can be given. Even Vladimir Putin himself said in 2013, that living the moratorium was <em>inadviseable</em>. As a result, only <strong>Lifelong imprisonment</strong> is at all an option for terrorism in the Russian Federation.</p>
<p>For the record, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Golovkin" rel="nofollow noreferrer">last legal execution happened in 1996</a>, after which then-president Yeltsin ordered an informal stop. The method for that last execution so far was firing a single shot into the back of the head.</p>

united-states russia capital-punishment terrorism