Entries tagged with “Joe Biden”

Federal Death Penalty

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Apr 21, 2025

A.C.L.U. Lawsuit Seeks to Prevent Transfer of Former Federally Death-Sentenced Prisoners to ​“Supermax” Prison

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and sev­er­al oth­er orga­ni­za­tions rep­re­sent­ing a group of for­mer­ly fed­er­al­ly death-sen­­tenced pris­on­ers filed a fed­er­al law­suit on April 16, 2025 seek­ing to pre­vent their trans­fer to the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado, known as​“ADX.” The trans­fers were threat­ened by the Department of Justice in response to President Donald Trump’s January 20th Executive Order 14164, which…

Federal Death Penalty

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Methods of Execution

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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…

Federal Death Penalty

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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…

Research

Methods of Execution

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Federal Death Penalty

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Sep 03, 2024

Articles of Interest: The New York Times Editorial Board Argues United States ​“Does Not Need the Death Penalty”

In an August 31, 2024, edi­to­r­i­al from The New York Times, the newspaper’s edi­to­r­i­al board writes that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is​“immoral, uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and use­less as a deter­rent to crime,” and asserts that President Joseph Biden should fol­low through with his cam­paign pledge to end the fed­er­al death penal­ty. The Times believes​“it would be an appro­pri­ate and humane finale to his pres­i­den­cy for Mr. Biden to ful­fill that pledge and try to eliminate…

State & Federal Info

Military

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Nov 10, 2023

A Veterans Day Review: Uneven Progress Understanding the Role of Military Service in Capital Crimes

In 2015, DPIC’s Battle Scars report brought world­wide atten­tion to the issue of mil­i­tary vet­er­ans on death row. DPIC found approx­i­mate­ly 300 vet­er­ans incar­cer­at­ed under a sen­tence of death, rep­re­sent­ing at least 10% of death row, and many more who had been exe­cut­ed. Since that report, research and under­stand­ing about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), trau­mat­ic brain injury (TBI), sub­stance use dis­or­ders, and men­tal ill­ness among veterans has…

State & Federal Info

Federal Death Penalty

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Oct 23, 2023

In New Podcast, Rush to Kill Documents 6‑Month Federal Execution Spree Under President Donald Trump’s Administration

In July 2020, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, under the direc­tion of Attorney General Bill Barr, resumed fed­er­al exe­cu­tions for the first time in 17 years. Over the course of the fol­low­ing six months, 13 fed­er­al death row pris­on­ers were exe­cut­ed. During those six months, the WFIU News team was grant­ed the oppor­tu­ni­ty to report on and wit­ness all 13 exe­cu­tions at United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute in Indiana. In the time since these exe­cu­tions, the…

Research

Federal Death Penalty

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Oct 03, 2023

Analysis Shows Supreme Court’s Changing View of Death Penalty Cases

A recent analy­sis by Bloomberg Law con­clud­ed that death-sen­­tenced pris­on­ers have few­er avenues to relief at the Supreme Court than ever before. Bloomberg iden­ti­fied 270 emer­gency requests to stay exe­cu­tions since 2013 and found that the Court agreed to block an exe­cu­tion just 11 times. Since 2020, when the Court shift­ed to a 6 – 3 con­ser­v­a­tive major­i­ty fol­low­ing the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the appoint­ment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the…