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Democrats reintroduce bill to abolish federal death penalty

By George Hale

Posted July 13, 2023

Durbin and Pressley first introduced the bill in 2021. (Justin Hicks / IPB News)

Democratic lawmakers are unveiling new legislation to abolish the federal death penalty.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) reintroduced the Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act on Thursday.

Read more: Garland says DOJ’s review of federal execution protocol ‘ongoing’

The act would prohibit death sentences for any violation of federal law and require resentencing for those already on federal death row in Indiana.

“State-sanctioned murder is not justice, and it’s time we abolish the cruel, racist, and fundamentally flawed death penalty that has been weaponized against Black, brown and low-income people for far too long,” Pressley said in a statement.

“With momentum growing across the country, Congress must follow suit and pass our bill to end the federal death penalty once and for all.”

Under current policy, all federal executions are conducted at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, which also houses U.S. death row.

Pressley and Durbin first introduced a bill in 2019, after then-Attorney General Bill Barr announced plans to resume executions for the first time in 16 years.

Durbin and Pressley reintroduced their legislation two years later, after the Trump administration carried out 13 executions in quick succession.  

The incoming Biden administration later placed a moratorium on carrying out death sentences as the justice department conducted a review of execution procedures.

“The death penalty is deeply flawed and disproportionately imposed on Black and Brown and low-income people in America,” Durbin said.

“Our bill follows the lead of 23 states, including Illinois, by finally putting an end to this failed and unjust policy at the federal level.” 

Sen. Durbin is the U.S. Majority Whip and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Read more: 'Still a long way to go' before U.S. abolishes federal death penalty

Durbin’s office also released a list of hundreds of groups backing the legislation.

They include the ACLU, Amnesty International USA, and dozens of religious organizations.

“Anybody that actually takes a good, honest look at the way capital punishment exists in this country, both at the state level and federal -- it's a broken system,” Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action, said Thursday.

“There's got to be something that Congress can do … We don't need to do this to hold people who’ve done awful things accountable, or to punish them severely.” 

Earlier Thursday, a federal jury announced that a man they convicted of killing 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 was eligible for the death penalty.

Read more: Garland halts federal executions, orders review of protocols

The Biden administration is seeking capital punishment in that case and others despite a moratorium on actually carrying out death sentences.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the moratorium in 2021 and said his department was studying execution procedures.  

A year later, he said the study was ongoing. 

“I have concerns about the changes that were made at the end of 2020, which led to the first executions in many, many years in the federal system,” Garland said at the time.

This story has been updated.

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