State & Federal Info

Federal Death Penalty

The federal government can seek death sentences for a limited set of crimes, but federal executions are much more rare than state executions.

Overview

The fed­er­al death penal­ty applies in all 50 states and U.S. ter­ri­to­ries but is used rel­a­tive­ly rarely. President Biden com­mut­ed the fed­er­al death sen­tences of 37 men on December 23, 2024, leav­ing just 3 pris­on­ers on the fed­er­al death row. Sixteen fed­er­al exe­cu­tions have been car­ried out in the mod­ern era, all by lethal injec­tion, with 13 occur­ring in a six-month peri­od between July 2020 and January 2021.

The fed­er­al death penal­ty was held uncon­sti­tu­tion­al fol­low­ing the Supreme Court’s opin­ion of Furman v. Georgia in 1972. Unlike the quick restora­tion of the death penal­ty in most states, the fed­er­al death penal­ty was not rein­stat­ed until 1988, and then only for a very nar­row class of offens­es. The Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 great­ly expand­ed the num­ber of eli­gi­ble offens­es to about 60.

The use of the fed­er­al death penal­ty in juris­dic­tions that have them­selves opt­ed not to have cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment — such as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and many states — has raised par­tic­u­lar con­cerns about fed­er­al over­reach into state matters.

News & Developments

News

Apr 07, 2025

U.S. Attorney General Directs Prosecutors to Seek Death Penalty for Luigi Mangione, Marking First Federal Death Sentence Sought By This Trump Administration

On April 1, 2025, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced she has direct­ed act­ing U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, Matthew Podolsky, to seek the death penal­ty against Luigi Mangione for the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. This is the first time AG Bondi has direct­ed pros­e­cu­tors to seek the death penal­ty since President Donald Trump assumed office in January 2025, when he issued an exec­u­tive order includ­ing a call to​“restore” the fed­er­al death penal­ty. In a…

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News

Jan 21, 2025

Among Flurry of First-Day Executive Orders, President Trump Issues Order on the Death Penalty

On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed more than two dozen Executive Orders, includ­ing a call to​“restore” the fed­er­al death penal­ty. The Order, while lack­ing many impor­tant details, instructs the Department of Justice’s Attorney General to​“pur­sue the death penal­ty for all crimes of a sever­i­ty demand­ing its use,” includ­ing the killing of a law enforce­ment offi­cer or​“a cap­i­tal crime com­mit­ted by an ille­gal alien present in this coun­try” and to encourage…

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Five vials of clear liquid, varying sizes. One is on its side with a syringe in it.

News

Jan 16, 2025

Department of Justice Withdraws Federal Execution Protocol and Keeps Moratorium on Executions in Place

Three and a half years after announc­ing its inves­ti­ga­tion into the fed­er­al death penal­ty pro­to­col, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on January 15, 2025 that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is rescind­ing the fed­er­al government’s sin­­gle-drug pen­to­bar­bi­tal lethal injec­tion pro­to­col. The DOJ’s deci­sion was based on what AG Garland called​“sig­nif­i­cant uncer­tain­ty” about whether exe­cu­tions by pen­to­bar­bi­tal caused unnec­es­sary pain and suf­fer­ing. The…

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News

Dec 09, 2024

Religious Groups, Former Corrections Officials, Pro-life Voices, and Many Others Urge President Biden to Commute Federal Death Sentences

In let­ters released on December 9, 2024, hun­dreds of stake­hold­ers urged President Joe Biden (pic­tured) to com­mute all fed­er­al death sen­tences before his term ends, cit­ing racial bias, sys­temic arbi­trari­ness, and the fail­ure of the fed­er­al death penal­ty to enhance pub­lic safe­ty. This col­lec­tive request reflects broad, bipar­ti­san acknowl­edge­ment of the flaws in the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem and aligns with the nation­al down­ward trend of sup­port for the death…

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