The Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project reported that only 5 of the 22 juries that heard federal capital cases imposed death sentences in the past year. During John Ashcroft’s term as Attorney General from 2001 to 2005, 18 of the 63 juries in capital cases returned death sentences. Some members of Congress have proposed easing the rules for obtaining death sentences in federal cases, allowing the government to seek the death penalty repeatedly if the jury is not unanimous for either a life or death sentence. Under current law, a non-unanimous sentencing jury results in a sentence less than death.
(N.Y. Times, Oct. 26, 2005).
Citation Guide
- Death Penalty Information Center (2025, March 14). Relatively Few Federal Death Sentences, But Proposed Legislation Would Make It Easier. Retrieved October 2, 2026, from https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/relatively-few-federal-death-sentences-but-proposed-legislation-would-make-it-easier
- Death Penalty Information Center. “Relatively Few Federal Death Sentences, But Proposed Legislation Would Make It Easier.” Last modified March 14, 2025. Accessed October 2, 2026. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/relatively-few-federal-death-sentences-but-proposed-legislation-would-make-it-easier.
- Death Penalty Information Center. “Relatively Few Federal Death Sentences, But Proposed Legislation Would Make It Easier.” Death Penalty Information Center, 14 Mar. 2025, https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/relatively-few-federal-death-sentences-but-proposed-legislation-would-make-it-easier. Accessed 2 Oct. 2026.
