U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder rec­om­mend­ed that all exe­cu­tions be put on hold while the Supreme Court is con­sid­er­ing Glossip v. Gross, a case involv­ing Oklahoma​’s lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dure. Speaking for him­self, rather than the admin­is­tra­tion, at a press lun­cheon on February 17, Holder said, ​“I think a mora­to­ri­um until the Supreme Court makes that deci­sion would be appro­pri­ate.” Holder has pre­vi­ous­ly crit­i­cized state secre­cy in lethal injec­tions, but voiced broad­er con­cerns about exe­cut­ing the inno­cent in his remarks: ​“Our sys­tem of jus­tice is the best in the world. It is com­prised of men and women who do the best they can, get it right more often than not, sub­stan­tial­ly more right than wrong. But there’s always the pos­si­bil­i­ty that mis­takes will be made…There is no abil­i­ty to cor­rect a mis­take where some­body has, in fact, been exe­cut­ed. And that is from my per­spec­tive the ulti­mate night­mare.” Holder said that the Department of Justice’s review of the death penal­ty, which President Obama ordered after the botched exe­cu­tion of Clayton Lockett, is still under­way, and is unlike­ly to be fin­ished before Holder steps down as Attorney General.

(L. Wheeler, ​“Holder calls for halt to US exe­cu­tions,” The Hill, February 17, 2015). See New Voices and Lethal Injection.

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