Has anyone in U.S. history been sentenced to death specifically for seditious behavior?

1. What the law actually says: civilian vs. military paths

Federal civilian criminal law does not provide a death penalty for sedition-related offenses; the statute commonly cited is seditious conspiracy, which in recent reporting carries a maximum sentence of about 20 years in prison ^[1]. By contrast, the military code — the Uniform Code of Military Justice — includes a section on sedition with penalties “up to and including death,” so the technical legal possibility of a death sentence exists for service members accused under military law ^{[2] [1]}.

2. Recent context that prompted the question

The question arises from President Donald Trump’s November 2025 social media posts calling six Democratic lawmakers’ appeal to troops to refuse illegal orders “seditious behavior, punishable by death,” and urging arrest and trial ^{[3] [4]}. Multiple outlets quoted his posts verbatim and noted the legal disconnect between civilian seditious conspiracy penalties and the president’s characterization ^{[5] [6]}.

3. Historical record in available reporting: no cited civilian death sentences for sedition

The sources collected for this query uniformly emphasize that civilian sedition prosecutions in modern U.S. practice do not include the death penalty and instead point to prison terms when convictions occur — for example, seditious conspiracy’s maximum being 20 years ^{[1] [7]}. None of the provided items identify a historical civilian case where someone was sentenced to death specifically for sedition; that fact is unmentioned in the current reporting, so a claim that civilians have been executed for sedition is not supported by these sources (not found in current reporting).

4. Military prosecutions: the legal exposure on paper vs. practice

The Uniform Code of Military Justice contains a sedition section with penalties including death, and news outlets cite that distinction explicitly when explaining the legal landscape after Mr. Trump’s posts ^{[2] [1]}. The available reporting notes the statutory exposure but does not provide examples in these excerpts of an actual military death sentence imposed under that sedition provision; therefore the difference between "on the books" severity and documented historical application is highlighted, but historical executions under that exact military sedition charge are not documented in these items (available sources do not mention an actual military death sentence for sedition).

5. How reporters and commentators framed the president’s statement

Major outlets quoted and criticized the president’s language, pointing out the mismatch between his claim that Democrats’ statements were “punishable by death” and how civilian law actually operates — typically punishable by prison, fines, or other penalties rather than execution ^{[5] [7] [3]}. Coverage ranged from straight news to more critical takes, but across Reuters, CNN, PBS, NBC and others the core factual correction — civilian sedition lacks a death-penalty provision, while the military code does not — is consistent ^{[2] [5] [6] [4] [1]}.

6. Competing perspectives and implicit agendas in reporting

Newsrooms’ legal clarifications serve a corrective function against an inflammatory political claim; that corrective framing can be seen as neutral fact-checking ^[1]. Political actors offered opposing views: the president’s posts framed the lawmakers as “traitors” deserving extreme punishment, while the targeted Democrats and their allies argued they simply restated legal principles and that the president’s rhetoric was dangerous ^{[3] [8]}. Some outlets emphasize public safety and norms; others focus on the constitutional and legal realities — these editorial priorities influence readers’ impressions but the underlying legal facts cited above are consistent across outlets ^{[5] [3]}.

7. Limitations of this review and next steps

My analysis is limited to the provided reporting excerpts; none of these sources documents a historical civilian execution for sedition or a concrete instance of a military death sentence carried out under the sedition provision (available sources do not mention either). To answer definitively about U.S. history beyond these reports would require legal-historical research in primary legal records and older historical scholarship, which is not included in the supplied sources.