Washington, D.C. — U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered a halt to all federal executions on Thursday.
The order marks a return to a nearly two-decade pause on federal executions.
Former Attorney General William Barr resumed the policy in July of 2020. A total of 13 executions took place between then and former President Donald Trump leaving office.
Now, the Justice Department’s policies and procedures regarding the federal death penalty are under review.
“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. That obligation has special force in capital cases,” read Garland’s statement.
The review aims to study the pain and suffering involving the use of pentobarbital, different execution methods besides lethal injection, and the provisions regarding capital punishment.
Support for the death penalty has waned in recent years, but it remained well over 50 percent for convicted murderers as of 2020, according to an ongoing Gallup poll. The poll found that 55 percent of people were in “favor of the death penalty for a person convicted of murder.” A total of 45 percent were opposed.
According to Gallup, support for the death penalty in murder cases peaked at 80 percent in 1994, with only 14 percent opposed.
All 46 offenders on death row in the federal system were convicted of aggravated murder.
Garland appears to be following the lead of primarily Democrat-led states that have abolished the death penalty in recent years.
Colorado became the 23rd state to do away with the death penalty in March of 2020. After the change, Governor Jared Polis (D) commuted the sentences of the three death row inmates to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania all have moratoriums on capital punishment.
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Garland needs to be executed for his stances and crimes against the country !!!!
Oh yes, as if the murderer was “humane” when he/she committed their crimes against humanity
Though I have come to loathe Merrick Garland after what he did in Georgia. But I am not mad about this. The only thing Hilary Clinton EVER got right in her entire career was when she said: “It takes a village to raise a child”. Too often, we know that some of these folks are going down the wrong path as children and we don’t say anything and they turn into Dylan Roof.
The only people who should get the death penalty are MASS murderers and terrorists. But rapists should also get life w/o parole.
Garland, should be hung on a Christmas Tree.
Another unconstitutional act. The A/G is breaking the law, pure and simple. The Constitution is clear Congress makes the laws, the Executive Branch makes sure the law is faithfully executed, and the Judicial Branch is there to make sure the other two branches stay in their lanes. All three are failing miserably in their duties–usurping powers of the other branches and not fulfilling the duties they are given.
When I was younger I supported abolishing the death penalty. As I got older and saw the viciousness of many of our criminals and the devastation they caused other human beings, I changed my mind. Why should we keep those beings alive after what they’ve done?
Sorry, if anyone commits aggravated murder, where their victims suffered horribly, THEN THAT MURDERER MUST FEEL THE SAME SUFFERING AS THEIR VICTIMS!
Any Christian who knows the Bible knows it says “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”! I know it also says to “Turn the other cheek”, but once you are dead, that is impossible.
Capitol Punishment has a dual message:
1) If you kill someone, you die yourself!
2) Executions are a “WARNING” to not kill anyone for any reason OR you will be killed yourself by Society. WARNING, to deter people killing each other!
Those states that have abolished Capitol Punishment are finding their prison systems soon to be overloaded with prisoners requiring those states to build more and more prison systems! Plus, so many of the prisoners that meet their Parole and set free, CANNOT MAKE IT IN THE FREE WORLD AND END UP COMMITTING ANOTHER CRIME SO THEY WOULD BE RETURNED TO THE PRISON SYSTEM — where they fit in!
By removing Capitol Punishment, the prison populations are going to grow so big that they will need their own Zip codes! The states w/o C.P. are going to find that instead of teaching criminals to behave, the new Aggravated Murder inmates will be educating the other prisoners to become like them or at least use the other inmates to do the killing,stabbing, etc for them.
Anyone who knows about prisons also knows that Prison inmates have their own inside rules/laws and many times those actions leak outside of the prisons too!
If you execute those prisoners who committed aggravated murders, etc, that mindset is removed from an already volatile prison system.
Democrats are the biggest wusses in the world, afraid of their own shadows or doing what is right to create a better, sane, moral, and safer American population! God forbid they would make an aggravated murder inmate have to suffer by Capitol Punishment, like he did to those he actually tortured before they died!
Here’s a thought: Maybe the word has gotten around about how many Americans would LOVE to see the democrats who stole our election be disciplined??? I’ve read many comments on how the guilty dems should be executed — hung by the neck until dead, or put in front of a Firing Squad or planted inside a fire ant colony smothered in honey, and hardly anyone said the very humane Lethal Injection! Most commenters wanted the dems to
S U F F E R big time!! And I totally agree!!!!
Actually, most of the states that abolished Capitol Punishment are run by demonrats — what does that tell you?!?
Please ask Mr Garland to look at the crimes – see what pain and suffering that criminal forced the victim to endore AND what their family is STILL enduring!!! Then ask him – what if that was YOUR son or YOUR daughter or YOUR Mother???? Would you still want them to go painfree??? Well – I DON’T!!!! I want them to have some pain, a lot if possible!!!! Get rid of them – I don’t want to support them – and I CERTAINLY can’t stand the fact that they’re living in a fairly luxurious lifestyle – compared to the rest of us!!!!!
What were those numbers? 13% of the population commits 90% of the CRIMES? Guess which segment? Any takers? The disparity of arrests is caused by a CULTURE that encourages and validates theft, violence and gangs, NOT by skin color.
Too make more Inclusive right
People like garland Never think, about the victims, innocent people DO NOT DESERVE TO DIE, they don’t wake up that morning and say to their loved ones bye family today I’m going to be murdered for no reason, I’ll see you on the other side some day, garland is a moron with no heart or brain, typical of these worthless demonrats and their leftist thinking and lying, destroy destroy destroy then hate some more that is their worthless way!