Federal Death Penalty

On September 21, 2023, a mil­i­tary judge in Guantanamo Bay ruled that Ramzi Bin al Shibh, one of five defen­dants in the 9/​11 case for whom the death penal­ty is being sought, is men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent to stand tri­al. Mr. Bin al Shibh, who has been detained for 21 years, will remain in cus­tody at Guantanamo as author­i­ties attempt to treat the post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der caused when he was forced to under­go ​“enhanced inter­ro­ga­tions” by the U.S. government.

Family mem­bers of some of the vic­tims of 9/​11 have asked the Biden Administration to aban­don cur­rent plea nego­ti­a­tions with Guantánamo detainees that would remove the pos­si­bil­i­ty of death sen­tences for the men accused of plan­ning the 9/​11 ter­ror attacks. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his four co-defen­dants have been held for more than twen­ty years, first at CIA black sites where they were sub­ject to ​“enhanced inter­ro­ga­tion tech­niques” and then at Guantánamo, but none has pro­ceed­ed to tri­al. The request came after fam­i­ly mem­bers were noti­fied by the Pentagon on August…

On August 1, 2023, death-qual­i­fied fed­er­al jurors unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed a sen­tence of death for Robert Bowers, who they had ear­li­er con­vict­ed of killing 11 Jewish wor­ship­pers at a Pittsburgh syn­a­gogue in October 2018. The jury agreed with all five aggra­vat­ing fac­tors alleged by the pros­e­cu­tion dur­ing the penal­ty phase but reject­ed defense counsel’s argu­ment that Mr. Bowers’ schiz­o­phre­nia and delu­sions meant he should not be sen­tenced to death. He will be for­mal­ly sen­tenced by the court on August 3, 2023. Family mem­bers of the vic­tims, some of whom will address…

The jury that found Richard Bowers guilty of all 63 fed­er­al charges he faces in con­nec­tion with the 2018 Pittsburgh syn­a­gogue shoot­ing found him eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty on July 13, 2023. Jurors delib­er­at­ed for about two hours before find­ing that the pros­e­cu­tion had met its bur­den by prov­ing that Mr. Bowers had the nec­es­sary intent to com­mit the crime and that the crime had spe­cif­ic aggra­vat­ing fac­tors for eli­gi­bil­i­ty. These fac­tors includ­ed the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of sev­er­al of the vic­tims. Defense coun­sel pre­sent­ed evi­dence of Mr. Bowers’ men­tal health…

Seventy years after the exe­cu­tions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, their sons, Michael and Robert Meeropol, have renewed their efforts to clear their mother’s name. Just ten and six years old when their par­ents were exe­cut­ed for fed­er­al charges of con­spir­a­cy to com­mit espi­onage, both men grew up believ­ing in their par­ents’ inno­cence. The Rosenbergs remain the only indi­vid­u­als put to death for peace­time espi­onage in American history. 

On May 25, 2023, 12 death-qual­i­fied jurors and six alter­nates were select­ed in the fed­er­al cap­i­tal tri­al of Robert Bowers, who is charged with killing 11 wor­ship­pers at a Pittsburgh syn­a­gogue in 2018. Prosecutors struck all the Black, Hispanic, and Jewish venire mem­bers. As tes­ti­mo­ny begins on May 30, some vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers have expressed sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, while oth­ers have objected.

On April 9, 2023, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called upon Attorney General Merrick Garland to with­draw the government’s pur­suit of the death penal­ty and accept a plea deal for a manda­to­ry life sen­tence in the mass shoot­ing at a syn­a­gogue in Pittsburgh in 2018. The edi­tors not­ed that seek­ing a death sen­tence: ​“would, in effect, re-enact the worst case of anti-Semitic vio­lence in U.S. his­to­ry through wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny, media cov­er­age and appeals that could con­tin­ue for up to 20 years.” The tri­al is sched­uled to begin soon with jury selec­tion on…

On March 14, 2023, at the direc­tion of Attorney General Merrick Garland (pic­tured), the U.S. Attorney for the District of North Dakota with­drew the notice of intent to seek a death sen­tence for Alfonso Rodriguez, Jr., who had been con­vict­ed in 2006 of the 2003 kid­nap­ping and killing of col­lege stu­dent Dru Sjodin. Rodriguez had orig­i­nal­ly been sen­tenced to death in 2007, but U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Erickson reversed the death sen­tence because of mis­lead­ing tes­ti­mo­ny pre­sent­ed at tri­al from the coro­ner and fail­ures of defense coun­sel to explore…

On March 13, 2023, a jury in the fed­er­al death penal­ty pros­e­cu­tion of Sayfullo Saipov in New York City con­clud­ed its delib­er­a­tions with­out com­ing to a unan­i­mous deci­sion regard­ing sen­tenc­ing. As a result, Saipov will be sen­tenced to life in prison with­out parole. On January 26, the jury had unan­i­mous­ly found the defen­dant guilty of mur­der­ing eight peo­ple in 2017 by delib­er­ate­ly ram­ming a truck onto a crowd­ed Manhattan bike path. Neither Saipov nor his attor­neys con­test­ed his involve­ment in the crime.

Sayfullo Saipov (pic­tured) was found guilty in fed­er­al court on January 26, 2023 of killing eight peo­ple on a New York City bike path in 2017 by dri­ving a truck into a crowd of peo­ple. He will now like­ly be the first per­son to face a fed­er­al cap­i­tal penal­ty hear­ing dur­ing President Biden’s admin­is­tra­tion. On February 6, 2023, a jury in Manhattan will begin hear­ing evi­dence to deter­mine whether Saipov will be sen­tenced to death or life with­out parole. The jury must vote unan­i­mous­ly for a death sen­tence to result.