Justice Department ends death penalty moratorium

· UPI

April 24 (UPI) -- The Department of Justice said on Friday it has reinstated the use of lethal injection and expanded the execution protocol to include firing squad, which are among other moves to streamline use of the death penalty for capital cases.

An unofficial moratorium on federal executions lasted from 2003 until 2019, when then-Attorney General William Barr announced a plan to resume executions.

After the first Trump administration executed 13 federal death row prisoners between July 2020 and January 2021, Biden's attorney general, Merrick Garland, announced a moratorium on all federal executions.

With Thursday's announcement, the Trump administration has come full circle as it rescinded Biden-era death penalty commutations and has authorized seeking the death penalty against nine of 44 defendants the department is seeking it for.

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"The prior administration failed in its duty to protect the American people by refusing to pursue and carry out the ultimate punishment against the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child murderers and copy killers," Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a press release.

"The Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims," he said.

The unofficial moratorium started after the 2003 execution by lethal injection of Louis Jones Jr., who raped and killed Army Pvt. Tracie McBride in 1995.

The 13 executions carried by the Trump administration in 2020 and 2021 surpassed the total number of federal executions that took place from 1949 to 2019.

The Justice Department said Friday that Biden and Garland's announced, formal moratorium disregarded the feelings of victims families, and that by declining to seek the death penalty for alleged rapists, murderers, mass shooters and drug dealers they made the country less safe.

In its announcement, the department published a report that it says shows the use of pentobarbital -- a single chemical lethal injection -- for federal death sentences is consistent with the Eighth Amendment.

Based on the report, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has been ordered to reinstate its use in federal executions. Firing squad has also been added to the methods of execution permitted under law.

The administration plans to propose a rule to streamline federal habeas review of capital cases that could "reduce by years" the time from a defendant being convicted to being executed.

Additionally, the department is looking to limit the time frame for submitting clemency petitions and expand federal death row facilities or construct an additional facility.

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