Attorney General Merrick Garland has ordered a temporary suspension to the Department of Justice advocating scheduling of executions of prisoners. In his memo on Thursday, Garland echoed his own recently remarked reservations regarding the use of the death penalty. He underscored a number of defendants who were then exonerated and the statistics displaying possible discriminatory effects on minorities.
The DOJ is halting federal executions following a historic use of capital punishment by the former President Donald Trump's administration. It conducted 13 executions in six months. The attorney general made the declaration on Thursday. He said that he was imposing a moratorium on federal executions as the DOJ carries out a review of its guidelines and procedures.
Promoting Humanity
According to Garland, "The Department of Justice must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States, but is also treated fairly and humanely. That obligation has special force in capital cases," reported KSL TV.
Garland said the department would assess the protocols imposed by former Attorney General William Barr. A federal lawsuit has been filed over the procedures, including the susceptibility of pain and suffering linked with the usage of the drug used for lethal injection pentobarbital, reported WGN.
He stated that serious concerns have emerged regarding the arbitrariness of capital punishment, the concerning number of vindications in death penalty cases and its disparate impact on people of color.
Court bouts over the traditional three-drug memo for conducting lethal injections and a lack of one of those drugs halted federal executions for almost 20 years, reported NBC News.
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Garland remarked that such weighty concerns deserve meticulous study and assessment by lawmakers. For the time being, he added, the Department should work hard to scrupulously maintain their commitment to humane treatment fairness in the administration of existing federal laws governing capital sentences.
The memorandum directs the deputy attorney general to spearhead a multi-pronged assessment of recent policy changes. It requires the reviews to involve the consultations with a broad range of stakeholders including the relevant department components, medical experts, other federal and state agencies, and experienced capital counsel, according to the Justice Department. No federal executions will be scheduled simultaneously with the pending reviews.
Trump's DOJ resumed federal executions in July after a 17-year hiatus. No president in over 120 years supervised as many federal executions.
The decision puts executions currently on hold, but it does not end their use. It only keeps the door open for another administration to resume them. It does not halt federal prosecutors from picking the death penalty; the Biden administration lately asked the United States Supreme Court to reinstate the Boston Marathon bomber's initial death sentence.
In 2019, Barr directed federal prison officials to conduct lethal injections using a single drug, which is a powerful sedative.
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