Death Penalty News

The Army is preparing to carry out the executions of the military's four death-row inmates if ordered to do so by the president, according to an internal planning document reviewed by ABC News. If carried out, it would mark the first time the military executed convicted American inmates in more than a half-century The plan, dubbed "Operation Resolute Justice" and issued internally in February, directs Army officials to coordinate with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to transfer condemned prisoners from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to the federal execution facility in Terre Haute, Indiana, where the Justice Department carried out a series of non-military federal executions during President Donald Trump's first term.

The mystery of Joe Biden’s views about capital punishment has finally been solved. His decision to grant clemency to 37 of the 40 people on federal death row shows the depth of his opposition to the death penalty. And his decision to leave three of America’s most notorious killers to be executed by a future administration shows the limits of his abolitionist commitment. The three men excluded from Biden’s mass clemency—Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers—would no doubt pose a severe test of anyone’s resolve to end the death penalty. Biden failed that test.

President Biden used his clemency authority Monday to commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row to life without parole, in one of the most significant moves taken against capital punishment in recent presidential history. Biden did not commute the sentences of three men who were involved in cases of terrorism or hate-fueled mass murder, including Robert Bowers , convicted for the 2018 mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue; Dylann Roof , convicted for the 2015 mass shooting at a Black church in Charleston, S.C.; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev , convicted of the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon.

With Trump returning to the White House, only mass commutations will stop another federal execution spree. Five days after Orlando Hall was executed in the federal death chamber, Donald Trump appeared in the White House Rose Garden for the 2020 Thanksgiving turkey pardon ceremony. The enormous white birds, Corn and Cob, stood ridiculously as Trump wished them a “very long, happy, and memorable life.” At the Special Confinement Unit inside the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, men on death row watched news coverage on TV.

You don't have to tell Daniel Troya and the 40 other denizens of federal death row locked in shed-sized solitary cells for 23 hours a day, every day, that elections have consequences. To them, from inside the U.S. government's only death row located in Terre Haute, Indiana, Tuesday's election is quite literally a matter of life and death: If Kamala Harris wins, they live; if Donald Trump wins, they die. "He's gonna kill everyone here that he can," Troya, 41, said in an email from behind bars. "That's as easy to predict as the sun rising."

A top military court delivered a unanimous decision to uphold the death penalty conviction of ex-Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people and wounded dozens of others at then-Fort Hood, Texas. On Nov. 5, 2009, Hasan walked into a readiness processing center and opened fire with a semi-automatic handgun. Thirteen people, including a pregnant soldier, died in the barrage. At his court-martial, Hasan admitted to the shooting, and he was sentenced to death. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces rejected Hasan’s motion to reverse his death sentence after not finding enough merits to his arguments to grant his motion.

The prosecution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others held at Guantanamo Bay has been troubled by repeated delays and legal disputes. WASHINGTON — The suspected architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and his fellow defendants may never face the death penalty under plea agreements now under consideration to bring an end to their more than decadelong prosecution, the Pentagon and FBI have advised families of some of the thousands killed. The notice, made in a letter that was sent to several of the families and obtained by The Associated Press, comes 1 ½ years after military prosecutors and defense lawyers began exploring a negotiated resolution to the case.

A former soldier on military death row for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, could face execution after the nation’s top military court hears the case. Ex-Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, 52, is set for his case to stand before the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces on Tuesday for what is largely considered the deadliest mass shooting ever on a United States military installation. On Nov. 5, 2009, Hasan entered a readiness processing center at the Texas post and opened fire, killing 13 — including a pregnant soldier — and wounding 32. Hasan admitted to the shootings at his court-martial in 2013 and was sentenced to death. If Hasan is put to death, it would be the 1st military execution since 1961, when ex-soldier John Bennett was hanged after being convicted for raping and attempting to kill a young girl.

The first federal capital case tried under President Joe Biden ended with a split among jurors that means the life of an Islamic extremist who killed eight people in a New York City will be spared. It came at a rare federal death penalty trial in a state without the death penalty. That Biden’s Justice Department continued to pursue the death penalty for Sayfullo Saipov, who used a truck to mow down pedestrians and cyclists on a popular bike path, was a surprise to many given Biden’s opposition to capital punishment and his 2016 campaign pledge to end it federally. The jury’s failure to reach a unanimous decision means Saipov receives an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the October 2017 attack.

When he was running for office, Joe Biden made a promise: to work “to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level, and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example.” While his administration initially seemed headed towards that goal, it has now taken a U-turn and is seeking to kill the defendant in a case going to trial in New York.  It is an unfortunate development for an administration that is at its best when it takes a clear moral stand and sticks to it, as it has with American support of Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.  The new case involves Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, who is on trial for the killing of eight people on New York’s West Side Highway in 2017. On Sept. 18, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York filed a notice that the attorney general “has decided to continue to seek the death penalty,” rather than withdraw that request prior to trial. And, with that, the Biden administration broke with a loud...

(CNN) -- President Joe Biden's decision to nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, as CNN first reported, kills two birds with one stone: It satisfies -- and Biden hopes energizes -- liberals while also giving Senate Democrats a nominee they can confirm without much fanfare (and maybe even with a few Republican votes). Jackson had been the favorite for the seat since Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement last month because she checked the most boxes for a President who desperately needs a win in advance of the November midterm elections. Earlier this week, a dozen liberal groups sent a letter to Biden urging him to "build on your commitment to professional diversity by appointing someone with civil rights or public defense experience to the Supreme Court." While the letter didn't name Jackson, her background is the only one of the three finalists that fit the sort of person the letter described. (Jackson worked as a public defender for several y...

The vacancy will give President Biden his first chance to name a new justice. He has promised to nominate a Black woman. WASHINGTON — Justice Stephen G. Breyer, the senior member of the Supreme Court’s three-member liberal wing, will retire, two people familiar with the decision said, providing President Biden a chance to make good on his pledge to name a Black woman to the court. Mr. Biden is expected to formally announce the retirement at the White House on Thursday, according to one person familiar with the planning for the event. Justice Breyer, 83, the oldest member of the court, was appointed in 1994 by President Bill Clinton. After the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020 and the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett by President Donald J. Trump, he became the subject of an energetic campaign by liberals who wanted him to step down to ensure that Mr. Biden could name his successor while Democrats control the Senate. With conservatives now in full control of the court,...

Delays are the inevitable result of an irreconcilable conflict: US government’s desire to convict and execute the men and the fact that defendants are also victims of CIA torture THE CONVERSATION — As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 passed, the five men accused of responsibility for the attacks were still awaiting trial in the Guantanamo military commission. This case is the largest criminal prosecution in United States history in terms of number of victims. The charge sheet lists the names of 2,976 people who were direct casualties of two hijacked commercial airliners that crashed into the World Trade Center and caused the twin towers to collapse, another that crashed into the Pentagon and a fourth, probably aiming for the US Capitol building, that was brought down in a field in western Pennsylvania when several passengers overpowered their hijackers. Yet two decades after the US‘s worst terrorist attack, the 9/11 case remains mired in the pretrial phase with no start date for the tria...

Take a look back at everything that led to the fateful, controversial execution. Tuesday marked the 10-year point since the state of Georgia executed Troy Davis despite increasing suspicions of his innocence following his conviction for killing an off-duty police officer. Davis denied committing the murder throughout his prison sentence and up until he was literally on his deathbed when he sat up on the gurney to which he was strapped and looked the family of Savannah Police Officer Mark MacPhail in their eyes to repeat claims of his innocence in the 1989 killing. “I did not have a gun,” he told them before turning his attention to his soon-to-be executioners. “For those about to take my life,” Davis said to prison officials, “may God have mercy on your souls. May God bless your souls.” But according to the transcript from audio of Davis’ last moments alive, his final words were, “continue to fight this fight,” a message to his supporters and death penalty opponents who unsuccessfully ...

One of President Joe Biden's most powerful tools for advancing criminal justice reform is his voice and yet, despite his campaign promises, he has been mostly silent on the issue while in office, frustrating criminal justice reform advocates. Advocates for ending mass incarceration and mandatory minimum sentencing would have liked Biden to do more than just talk about criminal justice reform in his first six months in office, but they are even more frustrated by the fact that he isn't loudly advocating for reform and isn't letting people know when he will act on his reform promises. Andrea James, a former criminal defense attorney turned activist who voted for Biden, attended a White House virtual discussion in May about how the Biden administration can reduce incarceration and better help the formerly incarcerated reenter society, shortly after Biden's first 100 days in office. At the time, the administration didn't give her any indication when Biden would start gr...