In May 1959, U.S. Army Secretary Wilber M. Brucker recommended that Hurt's death sentence be carried out. "I have studied this case carefully," he said. "And I am convinced of the guilt of the accused." Pointing to his prior convictions and his false statements on his enlistment papers, Brucker said Hunt had a history of being both a rapist and a liar. However, in 1960, in response to increasing pressure, Hunt's sentence was reduced to 45 years - without the possibility of parole - by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1960.
