Editing Summary execution

{{Short description|Execution without trial}}
[[File:Saigon Execution.jpg|thumb|[[Nguyễn Ngọc Loan]] summarily executes [[Viet Cong]] Captain [[Saigon Execution|Nguyễn Văn Lém]] in [[Saigon]] during the [[Tet Offensive]] in 1968.]]
In civil and military jurisprudence, '''summary execution''' is the putting to death of a person accused of a crime without the benefit of a [[Right to a fair trial|free and fair trial]]. The term results from the legal concept of summary justice to punish a [[summary offense]], as in the case of a [[drumhead court-martial]], but the term usually denotes the ''summary execution'' of a sentence of death. Under international law, it is defined as a combatant's refusal to accept an opponent's lawful surrender and the combatant's provision of [[no quarter]], by killing the surrendering opponents.

Summary executions have been practiced by [[police]], [[military]], and [[paramilitary]] organizations and are frequently associated with [[guerrilla warfare]], [[counter-insurgency]], [[terrorism]], and any other situation which involves a breakdown of the normal procedures for handling accused prisoners, civilian or military.

==Military jurisdiction==
[[File:El Tres de Mayo, by Francisco de Goya, from Prado thin black margin.jpg|thumb|This painting, ''[[The Third of May 1808]]'' by [[Francisco Goya]], depicts the summary execution of Spaniards by French forces after the [[Dos de Mayo Uprising]] in [[Madrid]].]]
Under [[military law]], summary execution is illegal in almost all circumstances, as a [[military tribunal]] would be the competent judge needed to determine guilt and declare a sentence of death.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

===Prisoners of war===

Major treaties such as the [[Geneva Conventions]] and [[Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907|Hague Conventions]], and [[customary international law]] protect the rights of captured [[Regular army|regular]] or [[Irregular military|irregular enemy soldiers]] and [[civilians]]. [[Prisoners-of-war]] (POWs) must be treated in carefully defined ways which definitively ban summary execution, as the [[Additional Protocol II|Second Additional Protocol]] of the Geneva Conventions (1977) states:

{{quote|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.|Second Protocol of the Geneva Conventions (1977), Article 6.2}}

===Exceptions to prisoners-of-war status===

However, some classes of [[combatants]] 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 [[pirate]]s, [[spy|spies]], and [[francs-tireurs]]<ref>Ticehurst R (1997-04-30). [http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/57JNHY The Martens clause and the laws of armed conflict. ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070415003954/http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/57JNHY |date=2007-04-15 }} ''Int Rev RC'' #317, @ pp 125–134. Seen 2010-06-30.</ref> have been performed and considered legal under existing international law.<ref>[https://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/part7.htm Law Of The Sea].</ref> Francs-tireurs (a term originating in the [[Franco-Prussian War]]) are enemy civilians or [[militia]] who continue to fight in territory occupied by a warring party and do not wear military uniforms, and may otherwise be known as [[guerrilla]]s, [[Partisan (military)|partisans]], [[insurgents]], 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 [[Axis powers|Axis]] if they were captured. The war also influenced them to make sure that [[commandos]] 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 [[Commando Order]].
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1968-034-19A, Exekution von polnischen Geiseln.jpg|thumb|right|Polish people being executed by a German firing squad in [[Kórnik]], October 1939]]
[[File:The Bochnia massacre German-occupied Poland 1939.jpg|thumb|right|The execution of 56 Polish citizens in [[Bochnia]], near [[Kraków]], during [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German occupation of Poland]], December 18, 1939, in a reprisal for an attack on a German police office two days earlier by the underground organization "White Eagle"]]
The Commando Order was issued by [[Adolf Hitler]] on October 18, 1942, stating that all [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] [[commando]]s 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 [[saboteurs]] 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 [[Sicherheitsdienst]] (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.<ref name="USGPO_translation">{{Citation | url = http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/commando1.htm | title = USGPO Translation of order | publisher = UWE | place = UK | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070618025102/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/commando1.htm | archive-date = 2007-06-18 }}</ref> This was in fact the second "Commando Order",<ref>{{Citation | place = UK | url = http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/commando_order.htm | title = History learning site | contribution = The Commando Order}}</ref> the first being issued by Generalfeldmarschall [[Gerd von Rundstedt]] on July 21, 1942, stipulating that parachutists should be handed over to the [[Gestapo]].<ref>{{Citation | quote =...&nbsp;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. | publisher = British National Archives | title = CAB/129/28}}</ref> Shortly after World War II, at the [[Nuremberg Trials]], the Commando Order was found to be a direct breach of the [[laws of war]], and German officers who carried out illegal executions under the Commando Order were found guilty of [[war crimes]].

According to Article 4 of the [[Third Geneva Convention]] 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 ''francs-tireurs'' (in the original sense of "[[illegal combatant]]") and punished as criminals in a military jurisdiction, which may include summary execution.

Soldiers who are wearing uniforms of the opposing army ''after the start of combat'' may be considered illegal combatants and subject to summary execution. Many armies have performed that kind of [[false flag]] ruse, including both German and US [[special forces]] during World War II. However, if soldiers remove their disguises and put on proper insignia ''before the start of combat'' in such an operation, they are legal combatants and must be treated as [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war (POWs)]] if captured. That distinction was settled by a military tribunal in the postwar trial of [[Otto Skorzeny]], who led [[Operation Greif]], an infiltration mission in which German commandos wore US uniforms to infiltrate US lines during the [[Battle of the Bulge]].<ref>{{cite book | title = The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War | author = Gary D. Solis | date = 15 February 2010 | page = 432 | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]] | isbn = 978-0-5218-7088-7 }}</ref>

===Under martial law===

Within a state's policy, [[martial law]] 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.

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 [[human rights]].

== See also ==
* [[Arbitrary arrest and detention]]
* [[Encounter killings by police]]
* [[Extrajudicial punishment]]
* [[Extrajudicial killing]]
* [[Forced disappearance]]
* [[Genocide justification]]
* [[License to kill (concept)]]
* [[Lynching]]
* [[Retributive justice]]
* [[Right to a fair trial]]
* [[Vigilante]] 
* [[Ras Sedr massacre]] 

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{World topic| Extrajudicial killings in | noredlinks=yes | title = [[targeted killing| Targeted killings by country]] }}
{{World topic| Capital punishment in | noredlinks=yes | title = [[Capital punishment| Capital punishment by country]] }}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Summary execution}}
[[Category:War crimes by type]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:Capital punishment]]
[[Category:Extrajudicial killings by type]]
[[Category:Law of war]]