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'Still A Long Way To Go' Before U.S. Abolishes Federal Death Penalty

By George Hale

Posted July 2, 2021

The Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana

All federal death sentences are carried out at a special facility in Terre Haute. (Adam Pinsker WTIU/WFIU)

Death penalty opponents and experts say a newly announced moratorium on federal executions is an important but mostly symbolic step.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo Thursday outlining the moratorium and a review of the government’s lethal injection protocol, including its controversial use of a single barbiturate.

According to Garland’s memo, the department will review the protocol to assess the suffering people could experience from execution drugs. Some experts believe people being executed might be conscious and experiencing extreme pain during the ordeal.

READ MORE: Garland Halts Federal Executions, Orders Review Of Protocols

Ruth Friedman, director of the Federal Capital Habeas Project, says the move is not enough and called on Biden to commute the sentences of everyone on death row.

“A moratorium on federal executions is one step in the right direction, but it is not enough,” she said Thursday, in a statement. “We know the federal death penalty system is marred by racial bias, arbitrariness, over-reaching, and grievous mistakes by defense lawyers and prosecutors that make it broken beyond repair.”

Friedman said Biden “can and should commute all federal death sentences to address these problems. Otherwise, this moratorium will just leave these intractable issues unremedied and pave the way for another unconscionable bloodbath like we saw last year.”

All federal death sentences are carried out at a special facility in Terre Haute. That’s where the Trump administration held executions for 13 inmates in six months starting last July. 

"I think that there is still a long way to go," said Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "The only way that the administration can actually end the death penalty is through legislative repeal." 

Dunham said Biden could commute the death sentences of people currently on death row but it would not apply to future cases. 

White House officials say Biden opposes the federal death penalty and supports legislation in Congress to abolish it outright.

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