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).

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