Death Penalty News

The Trump administration is continuing to carry out capital punishment for federal crimes even though President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has signaled he will reverse the policy. WASHINGTON — In the final weeks of President Trump’s term, his administration intends to execute three inmates on federal death row, the last scheduled executions by the Justice Department before the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has signaled he will end federal use of capital punishment. Since July, when it resumed carrying out the death penalty after a 17-year hiatus, the Trump administration has executed seven federal inmates. Weeks before Mr. Biden is sworn in, the three inmates face the prospect of being the last federal prisoners to die by capital punishment for at least as long as he remains in office. Orlando Cordia Hall, 49, convicted in the brutal death of a teenage girl, is scheduled to be executed on Thursday. Two others prisoners are to be executed in December, including...

On August 26, the federal government is scheduled to execute a man named Lezmond Mitchell. While there are many reasons a state-sanctioned execution might be challenged — like inadequate evidence of guilt, wishes of a victim’s family, or because capital punishment itself is seen as unethical — Mitchell’s is being contested for a different reason entirely: an affront to tribal sovereignty. Mitchell is being executed against the will of the Navajo Nation , of which he is a citizen. If Mitchell is executed, it will be the first time in modern history that a Native American is executed by the government, in direct violation of federal law. Now, his tribe is asking President Trump to commute his sentence to life in prison. “The United States Department of Justice sought the death penalty against Mr. Mitchell despite the Navajo Nation’s public opposition, against the express wishes of the victim’s family, and ostensibly against the recommendation of the U.S. Attorney for the Dist...

WASHINGTON — When the Supreme Court announced June 29 that it would not hear an appeal by federal death-row inmates challenging the method to be used in their upcoming executions, a longtime advocate against capital punishment said the court "abdicated its legal and moral responsibilities." "This means that the federal government will likely execute four people" starting in July "using an untested lethal injection protocol during a global pandemic without any real oversight from the Supreme Court," tweeted Sr. Helen Prejean, a Sister of St. Joseph of Medaille. The unsigned three-sentence order from the court said Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor would have heard the inmates' appeal. The inmates had appealed a lower court order allowing the federal government to proceed with executions using a single-drug protocol. The federal executions, which have not taken place since 2003, are set to resume in mid-July. When Attorn...

The Supreme Court will not consider a challenge to new federal death penalty protocols proposed by the Justice Department, which could clear the way for the government to resume executions as early as July for the first time since 2003. The court, without comment, declined Monday to take up the lawsuit filed by four death row inmates. As is customary, it gave no reason. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor indicated that they would have accepted the case. Although this decision removes a significant barrier to resuming federal executions, it does not mean they will automatically proceed as scheduled. The individual inmates facing execution could file additional challenges, which could affect whether and when these sentences are carried out. RELATED | Justice Department plans to restart capital punishment after long hiatus The Justice Department said Monday that the court’s decision would allow the executions to proceed unless a lower court blocks them on ...

Attorneys for 4 federal inmates on death row have asked an appeals court to rehear their case challenging the Trump administration's plan to resume executions after a divided panel of judges ruled that the process could move forward. In a filing Friday, the inmates' legal team asked the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to take up the case two weeks after a panel ruled 2-1 against them, upholding the administration's new execution protocol. "In its haste to uphold the Protocol, the panel majority disregarded foundational principles of statutory interpretation, administrative law, and judicial review," the lawyers wrote. "These errors are troubling in their own right, as they could affect a wide range of this Court’s administrative-law cases. But the consequences here are far more imminent and grave. The panel’s decision will allow the Government to execute scores of federal inmates pursuant to an unlawful protocol." Earlier this month, tw...

Washington (CNN) -- A federal appeals court wiped away a lower court opinion Tuesday that blocked the federal government from executing federal inmates on death row. The 2-1 ruling is a win for the Department of Justice, but the appeals court noted that there are still other issues that need resolution, suggesting that the executions will remain on hold while litigation continues. The case comes after the Trump administration announced last July that it would reinstate the federal death penalty after a nearly two-decade lapse, and the two judges in the majority -- Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao -- were both appointed by President Donald Trump. Attorney General William Barr's move to reinstate the federal death penalty underscored the stark law and order philosophy of the Trump administration. At the time, he directed the head of the Bureau of Prisons to execute five inmates he said represented the "worst criminals." The Bureau of Prisons adopted a new let...

The fate of the Department of Justice’s recently proposed federal execution protocol is now in the hands of the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals, which recently heard arguments on whether the government overstepped when it created a uniform protocol. The case, In the Matter of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Execution Protocol cases , 19-5322, was heard by judges Gregory Katsas, Neomi Rao and David Tatel on Jan. 15, with arguments lasting roughly two hours. Melissa Patterson, an attorney for the Department of Justice, urged the appellate court to overturn an injunction prohibiting the government from executing five prisoners, while Catherine Stetson, representing the death row inmates, argued the government’s execution plan was unlawful. The litigation challenging the planned executions of five inmates on death row at the federal prison in Terre Haute — Alfred Bourgeois, Dustin Lee Honken, Daniel Lewis Lee, Lezmond Mitchell and Wesley Ira Purkey — has been ongoing s...

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration argued in a federal appeals court on Wednesday that it should be allowed to execute condemned inmates without delay after a lower court ordered the executions be put on hold to hear legal challenges. The administration's efforts to resume federal executions last year after a nearly 2-decade pause were stymied by legal challenges from death row inmates. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard arguments for 2 hours on Wednesday on whether to lift a lower court's injunction blocking the executions. It was unclear when the 3-judge panel would issue its decision. Attorney General William Barr announced the planned resumption of executions and a new 1-drug lethal injection protocol using pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate drug, in July. The first executions were scheduled for December but were placed on hold by a federal judge overseeing long-running lawsuits challenging the government...