Entries tagged with “Keith Nelson”
Executions
Executions Overview
,Federal Death Penalty
,Aug 28, 2020
News Brief — Federal Government Executes Keith Nelson
NEWS (8/28/20) — The federal government executed Keith Nelson on August 28. He was the fifth federal prisoner to be executed in 2020. Nelson’s execution had been put on hold several times as a result of preliminary injunctions issued in response to execution challenges brought by death-row prisoners Daniel Lee and Wesley Purkey. However, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated those injunctions prior to Lee’s and Purkey’s executions in July. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted…
Research
Federal Death Penalty
,Jul 17, 2020
Federal Government Carries Out Third Execution in One Week, As Challenges to Execution Protocol Fail
The United States government carried out its third execution in four days on July 17, 2020, executing Dustin Honken (pictured). The week’s executions doubled the number of prisoners the government has put to death since Congress reauthorized the federal death penalty in 1988. With overnight U.S. Supreme Court rulings vacating injunctions that would have halted the July 14 and 16 executions of Daniel Lee and Wesley Purkey, few legal avenues had remained for Honken to challenge his execution.
Issues
Religion
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jul 10, 2020
Op-Eds Highlight Disparities in Federal Death Penalty, as 1,000 Faith Leaders and the European Union Urge Justice Department to Halt Executions
As the scheduled July 13, 2020 date for the first federal executions in 17 years approaches, faith leaders, diplomats, and legal experts have asked the federal government to call them off. 1,000 faith leaders from across the country have urged President Trump and Attorney General Barr to halt the executions. They are joined by the European Union, which on July 10 also issued a statement strongly opposing the resumption of federal executions. Complementing their efforts, two recent op-eds by…
Research
Federal Death Penalty
,Jun 29, 2020
U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Hear Execution Protocol Case, Removing Barrier to Resumption of Federal Executions
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a challenge to the federal execution protocol, removing a potential major obstacle to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) plan to resume federal executions after a 17-year hiatus. The decision leaves in place an April 2020 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that lifted an injunction that had halted federal executions. The Department has scheduled four executions in July and August. The Court offered no explanation…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Upcoming Executions
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jun 16, 2020
With Litigation Pending in U.S. Supreme Court, Federal Government Issues Four Death Warrants
With a petition for review pending before the U.S. Supreme Court on the legality and constitutionality of the federal execution protocol, U.S. Attorney General William Barr on June 15, 2020 set execution dates for four federal death-row prisoners, including three who are involved in the pending case. The warrants scheduled three executions over a five-day period in July and a fourth execution in late August. No federal executions have been carried out since 2003, and the five execution dates…