August 5th, 2020 the commenting period opened for this document. September 4th 2020 it went into effect. Federal executions have been quietly carried out since then. Merrick Garland put a moratorium on the operation that has stood without question from the public. Read the document and see for yourself that not only is the practice taking place it is be carried out in many ways up to and including firing squad.
Manner of Federal Executions: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/12/01/C1-2020-25867/manner-of-federal-executions
“II. Proposed Rule – The Department published a notice of proposed rulemaking (“NPRM”) on August 5, 2020, Manner of Federal Executions, 86 FR 47324 (Aug. 5, 2020), proposing amendments to 28 CFR part 26 intended to provide the Federal Government with greater flexibility to conduct executions in any manner authorized by section 3596(a) and to implement the statutory authorization in section 3597(a) that provides that State and local facilities and personnel may be used in carrying out Federal executions. The proposed rule also proposed various amendments to other provisions of the regulations, as described in detail below, that would eliminate redundancies, such as eliminating § 26.2 regarding filing of a judgment and order with the sentencing court, and that would update the regulations for current practice by the Department and its components, such as granting authority for decision-making about certain matters to the Director of BOP or his designee, rather than to the Warden of the institution where the execution is to be conducted.
By the end of the 30-day comment period on September 4, 2020, the Department received 23 comments that were responsive to the proposed rule. Following are the Department’s responses to those comments.”
Merrick’s Moratorium
“On July 1, 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a moratorium on federal executions pending a review of certain policies and procedures. See Memorandum from the Attorney General, Moratorium on Federal Executions Pending Review of Policies and Procedures (July 1, 2021), https://www.justice.gov/opa/page/file/1408636/download. In issuing the moratorium, the Attorney General noted that “[t]he 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. Serious concerns have been raised about the continued use of the death penalty across the country, including arbitrariness in its application, disparate impact on people of color, and the troubling number of exonerations in capital and other serious cases.” Id.
The Attorney General noted that, in the last two years preceding the issuance of the moratorium, the Department had made a series of changes to its policies and procedures governing capital sentences, which were accompanied by the first federal executions in nearly two decades. Id. “To ensure that the Department’s policies and procedures are consistent with the principles articulated in [the] memorandum,” the Attorney General asked the Deputy Attorney General to supervise three reviews on this general subject.
The second of these reviews directs the Office of Legal Policy to consider whether and to what extent amendments made in November 2020 to federal regulations governing the manner of federal executions “should be modified or rescinded” and “to consider any other changes that should be made to the regulations.” Id. That review is the subject of this Request for Information.”
Read the entire document here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/09/27/2022-20889/request-for-information-regarding-the-manner-of-execution-regulations
The moratorium was carried out. The commenting period has come and gone. No rule change. No announcement post commenting period. The entire operation has simply ceased under Merrick Garland’s watch. The unilateral decision made by one person to stay the executions that so many require… why?
Here is the list of federal executions in 2020-2021 and when they ceased. Only 50 executions have ever been carried out at the federal level, 13 of them during this time period: https://www.bop.gov/about/history/federal_executions.jsp
Interestingly, if your were to run a search on Federal Register for the phrase “Manner of Federal Executions” only 5 documents have been released in the modern era on the subject, all during the 2020-2021 timeframe. Other documents associated with this topic on the Federal Register: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/search?conditions%5Bagencies%5D%5B%5D=justice-department&conditions%5Bterm%5D=%22Manner+of+Federal+Executions%22
The Federal Register seems kinda boring until you realize it’s talking about executing people and child trafficking. That’s why we put the resources, tools and feeds you want to pay attention to right here on Truth Trench.
