Attorney General Merrick Garland orders pause of federal executions
Source: NBC News
July 1, 2021, 7:00 PM EDT
By Pete Williams
Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered a temporary stop Thursday to scheduling further federal executions.
In a memo to senior officials, he said serious concerns have arisen about the arbitrariness of capital punishment, its disparate impact on people of color, and "the troubling number of exonerations" in death penalty cases.
"The Department of Justice must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States but is also treated fairly and humanly," he said.
Court fights over the traditional three-drug memo for carrying out lethal injections, and a shortage of one of those drugs, brought federal executions to a halt for nearly two decades.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/attorney-general-merrick-garland-orders-pause-federal-executions-n1272951
Great news - this choked me up, I'm so happy. We should NOT be taking lives of others, regardless of their crimes.
Next step is commuting all the death sentences to life.
PS - I don't think the business about the menu (not "memo"!) or shortage of drugs is the reason there were no executions.
Eliot Rosewater
(31,109 posts)a couple of people I can think of who KNEW the virus would KILL and purposely did nothing!
marble falls
(57,081 posts)rockfordfile
(8,702 posts)I couldn't imagine a serial killer getting three meals a day when that pos took lives of others.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)As long as the death penalty is an option the law of averages guarantees it will claim the lives of the innocent. Human nature also guarantees it will be used disparately against POC just as it always has been. Add to this it accomplishes absolutely nothing other than the satiation of those who demand their pound of flesh at an extraordinarily high cost. There are very good reasons why the entire civilized world has abolished it and why those who havent can no longer make a claim for membership.
question everything
(47,479 posts)The death penalty does not bring the victim back to life, does not provide closure - despite what many believe - and is not a deterrent.
George II
(67,782 posts)...capital murders than those with the death penalty.
question everything
(47,479 posts)What a horrible creature he is
George II
(67,782 posts)Tom Yossarian Joad
(19,229 posts)if it doesn't quite address the backwards and inhuman practice that most civilized societies have banned.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)thesquanderer
(11,986 posts)I only hope nobody has been executed between then and now.
George II
(67,782 posts)I wasn't worried, we now have decent, compassionate people in the White House and administration. Not barbaric like the monsters that just left.
Until last year, there were only three Federal executions since 1988, and none since 2003. But in the last six months before Biden was sworn in, 13 were executed, a number of them after the election.