# Has there been an American executed for treason? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 31, 2003, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-an-american-executed-for-treason/192046 "2003-07-31T03:00:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-an-american-executed-for-treason/192046/1 "2003-07-31T03:00:04Z")
Has there ever been an American who has been executed for commiting treason against the United States? Is spying considered treason? ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-an-american-executed-for-treason/192046/2 "2003-07-31T03:09:08Z")
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1953 for passing information about nuclear weapons to the USSR. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-an-american-executed-for-treason/192046/3 "2003-07-31T03:16:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RandMcnally \* > \*\*Has there ever been an American who has been executed for commiting treason against the United States? > > Is spying considered treason? \*\* > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KidCharlemagne \* > Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1953 for passing information about nuclear weapons to the USSR. They were convicted of espionage and not treason. > [@](#): > > Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. > > The Congress shall have power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted. Article III., Section 3., of the US Constitution Yes. [John Brown](http://www.aboutfamouspeople.com/article1039.html) ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-an-american-executed-for-treason/192046/4 "2003-07-31T03:27:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duckster \* > \*\*They were convicted of espionage and not treason. Article III., Section 3., of the US Constitution > > \*\* Thanks for the correction. If we were at officially at war with the USSR at the time could they have been tried for treason? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-an-american-executed-for-treason/192046/5 "2003-07-31T03:38:57Z")
Well, but Brown wasn’t convicted of Treason against the US, I don’t think. He was tried in Virginia state court, and executed for treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia. I did find someone who was convicted of treason and sentenced to death, but he was never executed. Tomoya Kawakita was born in America to Japanese parents. He was in Japan when WWII broke out, and unable to return to the US. During the war, he was ardently pro-Japanese and abused American POWs who were forced to work under him in a factory. After the war, he came to the US, where he was arrested, convicted of treason, and sentenced to die. The case went up to the Supreme Court (where he had argued that he voluntarily gave up his citizenship when the war broke out, and therefore, was not guilty of treason). The Court upheld his sentence, but Pres. Eisenhower commuted it and ordered him deported to Japan. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-an-american-executed-for-treason/192046/6 "2003-07-31T04:10:50Z")
Since the adoption of the Constitution, no American has been [executed for treason](http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20020111.html) against the federal government. John Fries was convicted of treason and sentenced to death for leading a rebellion against a federal property tax in 1798, but he was pardoned by President Adams. However, there were executions in the pre-Constitutional period. According to Funk & Wagnall’s, > [@](#): > > During the American Revolution, charges of treason were brought against American supporters of the British government . . . Several men were hanged for enlisting soldiers in the King’s army and for various other violations, such as furnishing supplies to the British. I assume these men were convicted in state courts, there being as of yet no federal judiciary. John Brown, as discussed, was also executed by authority of a state court for treason against Virginia, not the United States. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-an-american-executed-for-treason/192046/7 "2003-07-31T05:12:58Z")
Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Daoloth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/82dd89/32.png) [@Daoloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daoloth)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-an-american-executed-for-treason/192046/8 "2003-07-31T05:15:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Captain Amazing \* > \*\* The Court upheld his sentence, but Pres. Eisenhower commuted it and ordered him deported to Japan. \*\* FTR, he was pardoned by Kennedy. ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-an-american-executed-for-treason/192046/9 "2003-07-31T09:38:03Z")
slight hijack - how many people have ever been convicted of treason (especially in the last thirty years?) The only case I can think of off-hand apart from the ones mentioned is that of Tokyo Rose after WWII. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-an-american-executed-for-treason/192046/10 "2003-07-31T15:21:30Z")
I happen to have recently downloaded the Espy file of legal executions, so I looked up the people executed for treason. The states in the list below indicate which modern state the execution took place in. Obviously Michigan didn’t exist as a state in 1707 nor Maine in 1780 nor West Virginia in 1859/60. The 1862 executions in Texas took place after secession. There were several executions for treason in the list that I did not include because they were in Louisiana and Michigan before those areas came under British/American control. Jacob Leisler and Jacob Milbourne 1691 New York Philip Jones 1759 South Carolina Messer, Matter, Merrill, Pugh, and two other men 1771 North Carolina Moses Dunbar 1777 Connecticut Elijah Woodward 1777 Massachusetts Griswold 1778 Connecticut David Redding 1778 Vermont John Roberts and Abraham Carlisle 1778 Pennsylvania William Tweed and Andrew Groundwater 1779 South Carolina Jeremiah Baum 1780 Maine David Dawson and Ralph Morden 1780 Pennsylvania Three men 1781 Maryland Joseph Bettys 1782 New York John Brown, Shields Green, John Copeland, Edwin Coppoc, and John Cook 1859 West Virginia Stephens and Hazlett 1860 West Virginia Ira Burdick, Parson Maples, Jim McKinn, Ward, and John Conn 1862 Texas ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-an-american-executed-for-treason/192046/11 "2003-07-31T16:44:11Z")
Benedict Arnold? ---
**Author:** ![paperbackwriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-an-american-executed-for-treason/192046/12 "2003-07-31T17:24:29Z")
Benedict Arnold [lived a long and bitter retirement](http://www.bartleby.com/65/ar/Arnold-B.html) in England. > [@](#): > > He had already begun a treasonable correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton in New York City, and now arranged to betray West Point in exchange for a British commission and money. The plot was discovered with the capture of John André, but Arnold escaped. In 1781, in the British service, he led two savage raids—against Virginia and against New London, Conn.—before going into exile in England and Canada, where he was generally scorned and unrewarded. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-an-american-executed-for-treason/192046/13 "2003-07-31T20:31:17Z")
Maybe AHunter meant Nathan Hale.