Justice Department to Resume Federal Executions
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced Thursday that it will resume capital punishment for the first time in nearly two decades.
In a written statement, the Department said Attorney General William Barr directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to adopt an amended protocol clearing the way for the execution of inmates convicted of capital crimes.
Barr further directed Hugh Hurwitz, acting director of the Bureau of Prisons, to schedule the executions of five death-row inmates convicted of murdering, and in some cases torturing and raping, children and the elderly.
“Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people’s representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President,” Barr said in the statement.
“Under Administrations of both parties, the Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals, including these five murderers, each of whom was convicted by a jury of his peers after a full and fair proceeding,” the attorney general said. “The Justice Department upholds the rule of law—and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.”
If carried out, the federally sanctioned executions of the five men will be the first since 2003.
Only three federal executions have taken place since 1988, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has adopted a regulation that will require federal authorities to use a single drug, pentobarbital, in federal executions, according to the DOJ statement.
Pentobarbital is used by several states for lethal injections.
Four states have declared a moratorium on executions, as wrongful convictions have also been spotlighted by groups like the Innocence Project, which have secured the release of a number of death-row inmates in recent years.
Those states are California, Colorado, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.
In implementing California’s moratorium in March, Governor Gavin Newsom also announced that he was withdrawing the state’s execution protocol—the administrative plan by which executions are carried out—and was closing down the state’s execution chamber.
In his executive order imposing the moratorium, Newsom said, “I will not oversee the execution of any person while Governor.”
The order granted a reprieve to the 737 prisoners currently on California’s death row.
In The News
Health
Voting
Criminal Justice
LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order Friday instituting a forensic science task force as an advisory body within the Michigan Department of State Police. The task force’s role will be to provide recommendations to improve the use of forensics as a... Read More
WASHINGTON -- Arrests of Jan. 6 insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol are continuing this week even as the zeal to throw the defendants in prison with severe sentences begins to subside or run into stumbling blocks of criminal law. In the few weeks after the violent... Read More
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. As is their custom, the justices did not explain their rationale for taking up the appeal filed by the Trump administration, but the decision presents... Read More
The failure of the prison system to provide adequate mental health care is causing people to kill themselves at high rates, according to a new report. The report, published in February in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet, reviewed data from 27 countries, concluding that some of... Read More
RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia lawmakers gave final approval Monday to a bill that will end capital punishment in the Commonwealth. The legislation now heads to Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who has said he will sign it into law, making Virginia the 23rd state to stop executions.... Read More
WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden issued an executive order Tuesday to end the Justice Department's use of private prisons. The order tells the Justice Department not to renew contracts with the corporations that incarcerate more than 120,000 people in the United States, or about 8.2% of... Read More
