summary execution
Death without trial
Summary execution is killing someone immediately after capture or accusation, without trial or legal process.
The term appears in contexts of war, authoritarian regimes, and extrajudicial killings: Prisoners were lined up for summary execution.
The word summary here means swift and without formality—justice bypassed rather than administered.
- tortureDeliberate infliction of suffering
- firing squadGroup executing by gunshot
- death squadParamilitary killers targeting dissidents
- terrorismIntimidation through targeted violence
- genocideSystematic annihilation of a people
killing · purge · martial law · secret police · police brutality · war crimes · French Revolution · Reign of Terror · treason · mutiny · enemy combatant · capital punishment · kangaroo court · drumhead trial · swift justice · political prisoner · McCarthyism · military tribunal
- oppressionoppression, tyranny, racism, repression, secret police
- atrocitiesHolocaust, genocide, massacre, massacres, ethnic cleansing
- political violenceassassination, targeted killing, insurrection, state terror, state terrorism
- vigilantismvigilante, vigilantism, lynch mob, lynching, mob justice
- war crimescrimes against humanity, Nuremberg, war crimes tribunals, prisoner abuse, war criminals
- military executionfiring squad, death sentence, military tribunal, condemned, death warrant
summary executiondue process
Guaranteed judicial fairness
fair trial · trial by jury · judicial review · rule of law · habeas corpus
summary, summaries, summarize, summarized, summarizing, summarization, summarily, summed, summing