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No.
Sedition – typically words intended to incite insurrection against the government – is not punishable by death.
The federal crime is seditious conspiracy, where two or more people conspire to overthrow the government.
It is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
President Donald Trump on Nov. 20 said: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
His reference was to Democratic lawmakers who two days earlier reminded members of the military to disobey illegal orders.
Trump’s post prompted a rebuke from U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., among others.
Milwaukeean Victor Berger, the first Socialist elected to Congress, was convicted in 1918 of espionage, for his opposition to World War I, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The House refused to seat him on grounds of sedition. But he returned to Congress after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 1921.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- New York Times: ‘Sedition’: A Complicated History
- Cornell University Legal Information Institute: Sedition
- U.S. Code: 18 USC 2384: Seditious conspiracy
- New York Times: Trump Accuses Democrats of Sedition, ‘Punishable by Death,’ Over Message to the Military
- Wisconsin Historical Society: Victor Berger and Emil Seidel
- University of Wisconsin-Madison History Department: Wisconsin’s 1918 Special Election for Senate and the Trial of Victor Berger
- Newsweek: What US Law Says About Sedition and Troops Defying Illegal Orders
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