Garland halts federal executions, orders review
WASHINGTON >> The Justice Department is halting federal executions after a historic use of capital punishment by the Trump administration, which carried out 13 executions in six months.
Attorney General Merrick Garland made the announcement Thursday night, saying he was imposing a moratorium on federal executions while the Justice Department conducts a review of its policies and procedures.
“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 humanely,” Garland said. “That obligation has special force in capital cases.”
Garland said the department would review the protocols put in place by former Attorney General William Barr. A federal lawsuit was filed over the protocols — including the risk of pain and suffering associated with the use of pentobarbital, the drug used for lethal injection.
Donald Trump’s Justice Department resumed federal executions in July, following a 17-year hiatus. No president in more than 120 years had overseen as many federal executions. The last inmate to be executed, Dustin Higgs, was put to death at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, less than a week before Trump left office.
There were major discrepancies in the way executioners who put 13 inmates to death described the process of dying by lethal injection. They likened the process in official court papers to falling asleep and called gurneys “beds” and final breaths “snores.”