Federal Execution Team Members Test Positive for COVID-19 After Orlando Hall Execution

Eight mem­bers of the fed­er­al Bureau of Prisons (BOP) exe­cu­tion team and a reli­gious advi­sor have test­ed pos­i­tive for the coro­n­avirus after par­tic­i­pat­ing in the November 19 exe­cu­tion of Orlando Hall (pic­tured). The COVID-19 infec­tions, which fed­er­al author­i­ties had not pre­vi­ous­ly revealed, came to light in doc­u­ments pro­duced in a law­suit two pris­on­ers have filed to halt the remain­ing federal executions. 

The Terre Haute fed­er­al cor­rec­tion­al com­plex, where fed­er­al exe­cu­tions are con­duct­ed, is in the midst of a major out­break of COVID-19, with 264 pris­on­ers and 21 staff hav­ing test­ed pos­i­tive for the dis­ease. The two pris­on­ers, who are serv­ing non-cap­i­tal sen­tences at the Terre Haute facil­i­ty, asked a fed­er­al court to issue an injunc­tion against the five sched­uled exe­cu­tions, argu­ing that they present a sig­nif­i­cant risk to the health of pris­on­ers. The court denied their request on December 9.

In a December 7, 2020 affi­davit sub­mit­ted in the law­suit, Smith v. Barr, BOP Regional Counsel Rick Winter stat­ed that six mem­bers of the Hall exe­cu­tion team brought to Terre Haute from oth­er BOP facil­i­ties for the Hall exe­cu­tion test­ed pos­i­tive for the coro­n­avirus ​“with­in approx­i­mate­ly one week from their return home.” Two oth­er mem­bers of the exe­cu­tion team ​“test­ed pos­i­tive more than one week after return­ing home,” he said. Yusef Ahmed Nur, a pro­fes­sor at Indiana University Kokomo who served as Hall’s spir­i­tu­al advis­er before his exe­cu­tion, said he also test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19 after Hall’s execution.

Each exe­cu­tion brings approx­i­mate­ly 100 peo­ple into the prison, includ­ing exe­cu­tion staff, extra secu­ri­ty staff, media, and oth­er wit­ness­es. Officials for the BOP have said that COVID test­ing for those trav­el­ing to the exe­cu­tions is not manda­to­ry. Only six of the 40 mem­bers of the exe­cu­tion team opt­ed to be test­ed upon arrival in Terre Haute, and all test­ed neg­a­tive. The eight pos­i­tive COVID-19 tests rep­re­sent 20% of the exe­cu­tion team. Five of those who test­ed pos­i­tive less than a week after the exe­cu­tion are slat­ed to par­tic­i­pate in the December 10 exe­cu­tion of Brandon Bernard. BOP offi­cials said this is in keep­ing with guid­ance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which advis­es at least ten days of iso­la­tion after a pos­i­tive test. However, it is unknown whether any of the staff have been retest­ed to ensure they are no longer contagious.

Cassandra Stubbs, direc­tor of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project, said, ​“The fact that at least 20 per­cent of the BOP’s exe­cu­tion team has con­tact­ed COVID-19 fol­low­ing Orlando Hall’s exe­cu­tion speaks vol­umes — par­tic­u­lar­ly giv­en the fact that we don’t know how many team mem­bers opt­ed in to be test­ed. There is no way to con­duct these fed­er­al exe­cu­tions right now in a way that is safe. The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment isn’t just will­ing to sac­ri­fice the health and safe­ty of peo­ple incar­cer­at­ed at Terre Haute — it’s sac­ri­fic­ing its own employ­ees, peo­ple who live in Vigo County, spir­i­tu­al advi­sors, and so many others.” 

Nur said he was in the exe­cu­tion cham­ber with exe­cu­tion staff who were not wear­ing masks. He wrote that he is ​“cer­tain” he con­tract­ed the virus as a result of his par­tic­i­pa­tion in the exe­cu­tion, explain­ing, ​“My only risk of expo­sure was the day of the exe­cu­tion, when I was shuf­fled back and forth from packed vans to crowd­ed rooms, and stood in the death cham­ber only feet away from unmasked executioners.”

The five fed­er­al exe­cu­tions per­formed over the sum­mer are also believed to have con­tributed to an out­break at the Terre Haute prison that led to at least three fatal­i­ties. Across the coun­try, more than 1500 pris­on­ers have died of COVID since the pan­dem­ic began, and at least 16 death-row pris­on­ers have died of the dis­ease. Thirteen death have been report­ed on death row in California, and one each in Arizona, Missouri, and Ohio.

At least a dozen cas­es of COVID-19 have been direct­ly linked to the resump­tion of fed­er­al exe­cu­tions. In addi­tion to Professor Nur and the BOP employ­ees infect­ed dur­ing the Hall exe­cu­tion, a mem­ber of the exe­cu­tion prepa­ra­tion team for the Daniel Lee exe­cu­tion in July test­ed pos­i­tive for the virus. Two lawyers for Lisa Montgomery also con­tract­ed COVID-19 as a result of being forced to trav­el, against med­ical advice, from their homes in Nashville, Tennessee to the prison in Fort Worth, Texas, to vis­it with Montgomery in con­nec­tion with her sched­uled exe­cu­tion on December 8. Because of the seri­ous­ness of their con­di­tion, a fed­er­al court stayed Montgomery’s exe­cu­tion, which the Department of Justice then resched­uled for January 2021.