During the Trump administration, the Justice Department historicly used the death penalty, but now the government is stopping execution. It is reported that the Trump administration has executed 13 times in 6 months.
Federal prison in Trehout, Indiana. (Image source: Associated Press profile photo)
The Associated Press reported that Attorney General Merrick Garland made the announcement on the evening of July 1. He indicated that he would suspend executions during the Ministry of Justice's review of policies and procedures related to the death penalty.
"The Department of Justice must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system not only enjoys the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and laws, but is treated fairly and humanely," Garland said. This obligation has special effect in cases of the death penalty. ”
Garland revealed that the Justice Department will review the protocols set out by former Attorney General Barr, which include the risk of pain and suffering posed by the use of the injectable drug pentobarbital.
During the Trump era, the Justice Department resumed federal executions in July 2020 after a gap of 17 years. No president has executed so many federal executions in office for more than 120 years. Dustin Higgs, the last prisoner executed in Mr. Trump's tenure, was sentenced to law at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, less than a week after Mr. Trump left office.
The executors who executed the 13 prisoners differed significantly in their descriptions of the lethal process by injection. They likened the process to falling asleep in official court documents, calling the wheel bed a "bed" and the final spitting a "snoring."
But those calm accounts do not match reports from the Associated Press and other media eyewitnesses. The reports tell the story of how the prisoner's stomach was affected and reacted violently when pentabarbital took effect in the prison death row. The Associated Press witnessed every execution.
Since all aspects of the execution of the death penalty were confidential, none of the executioners mentioned those circumstances.
In litigation over federal death penalty statutes, lawyers argued that Wesley Purkey, a man executed last year, felt "extreme pain" after taking a dose of pentobarbital.
In addition, the Federal Bureau of Prisons declined to explain how pentobarbital was obtained for injections. But as the drug became increasingly difficult to obtain, states rushed to adopt other means. Beginning in the 21st century, pharmaceutical companies began to prevent governments from using their products to carry out executions. The companies say they're there to save lives, not take them.
President Joe Biden has expressed opposition to the death penalty. His team has also vowed that he will take action to stop the use of the death penalty during his tenure. But the issue was not so easy for Biden, who had been a proponent of the death penalty. He helped draft the 1994 law and added 60 federal capital offenses, including kidnapping that killed people. However, he later acknowledged that the law had a disproportionate impact on Afro-Descendants. (End)