Democrats Urge Biden Administration To Stop Seeking Death Penalty - Forbes

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Topline

A month after the Department of Justice halted executions for current federal death row inmates, more than 20 congressional Democrats urged the department to go even further Monday and stop seeking the death penalty in all future cases, as anti-death penalty advocates press the Biden administration to roll back capital punishment permanently.

Key Facts

In an open letter Monday afternoon, 17 Senate Democrats — including Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) — asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to bar federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty in any new or pending criminal cases while the DOJ conducts a review of capital punishment ordered by Garland last month.

Four House Democrats penned a similar letter Monday, with House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and his colleagues encouraging Garland to “halt all participation in the capital punishment system” by no longer pursuing the death penalty.

Both letters lauded Garland for imposing a moratorium on executions in early July, but warned the DOJ could set the stage for a future president to ramp up executions again if it keeps pursuing the death penalty in new cases.

The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.

Tangent

Congressional Democrats cited former President Donald Trump — who ended a 17-year-long lull in federal executions last year by putting 13 people to death in six months — as a cautionary tale. Critics cast this uptick as cruel and unnecessary, but former Attorney General William Barr pointed to the gruesome crimes for which some inmates were convicted and argued the DOJ was working to “carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.”

Crucial Quote

“We were alarmed when the previous administration ended the 17-year moratorium on the federal death penalty,” Senate Democrats’ letter to Garland said. “By refusing to seek the death penalty and add more prisoners to death row, you can reduce the risk that a future administration will carry out federal executions at a similar rate.”

Key Background

Biden pledged to push for the death penalty’s elimination on the campaign trail last year. So far, the DOJ has temporarily stalled executions until a wide-ranging review of the practice is completed, and the department withdrew death penalty requests in seven ongoing federal cases last month, the New York Times reported. But some death penalty opponents have chided the Biden administration for not taking more sweeping action. The Biden-era DOJ is asking the Supreme Court to reinstate the death penalty for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, after an appeals court voided his capital sentence last year, a strategy seemingly at odds with Biden’s opposition to the death penalty. And some lawmakers want to end capital punishment via legislation, barring Biden or any future presidents from seeking the death penalty altogether.

Contra

Garland’s pause only applies to the dozens of prisoners who await execution on federal death row, a tiny share of the more than 2,500 inmates who are currently slated for death nationwide, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center. The vast majority of the country’s death row inmates were sentenced to death via the state court system, and more than half of all states still legally permit capital punishment.

What To Watch For

The DOJ’s review. Garland commissioned a probe of racial disparities associated with capital punishment, safety concerns for lethal injection drugs and the risk of executing inmates who later turn out to be innocent. It’s unclear when the review will wrap up.