America’s history with capital punishment starts in 1608 with the Jamestown colony. Captain George Kendall was the first to be executed in what is now the United States. This marked the beginning of four centuries of executions by hanging, electrocution, and lethal injection.
The modern era saw significant changes. In 1972, the Supreme Court halted executions with Furman v. Georgia. This led states to rewrite their laws. By 1976, with Gregg v. Georgia, executions resumed.
But, while states were busy, federal executions were silent for 17 years. It was as if the federal government forgot it was part of the conversation.
In 2020, Attorney General Barr made a big comeback. He oversaw five executions after nearly two decades of silence. It was a dramatic return to the stage.
2020 Policy Change
2020 was a year full of surprises, and federal executions were no exception. Attorney General William Barr made a move that would make Shakespeare proud.
On July 1, 2020, Barr introduced a big change. He told the Federal Bureau of Prisons to use single-drug pentobarbital for executions. This was a switch from a three-drug cocktail.
This change was big, not small. It was like going from a fancy cocktail to a simple whiskey shot. Barr said Congress allowed it and it honored victims.
The change led to five executions. The list of inmates was like a horror movie cast:
- Daniel Lewis Lee (July 13, 2020)
- Lezmond Mitchell (August 26, 2020)
- Wesley Ira Purkey (July 16, 2020)
- Alfred Bourgeois (December 11, 2020)
- Dustin Lee Honken (July 17, 2020)
These inmates had no more appeals left. Their crimes were so bad, they make true crime stories seem tame. We’re talking about white supremacists and child murderers.
Barr’s timing was questioned. Starting executions during a pandemic was seen as odd. He said it was about following the justice system.
The use of pentobarbital was not new. But for the federal death penalty, it was a big change. It showed a new approach to executions.
This change was more than just a method switch. It marked a return to capital punishment at the federal level after 17 years. The message was clear: the death penalty was back, and it was serious.
Public Debate and Protests
While the Justice Department was busy with executions during the pandemic, America was having a moral reckoning. Imagine federal executions turning into superspreader events. At the same time, the country was debating if it was right to use hand sanitizer on death row.
The ACLU stepped up, filing lawsuits that sounded like Black Mirror episodes. Their challenges pointed out the absurdity of forcing spiritual advisors to choose between their health and faith. Reverend Seigen Hartkemeyer faced a tough choice: risk death to minister to a dying man or leave his religious duties?
Execution events became like playing Russian roulette. After Orlando Hall’s execution, eight team members tested positive, making Terre Haute a pandemic hotspot. Spiritual advisor Yusuf Ahmed Nur got COVID-19 after attending an execution, showing that viruses don’t care who they spread to.
Over 80 civil rights groups later asked Biden to stop the executions. They argued that the Justice Department had created a public health disaster and a moral catastrophe. Their petitions were a list of pandemic horrors:
- Forced choices between religious duties and survival
- Execution teams as unintended biological weapons
- Prison COVID cases skyrocketing faster than meme stocks
It was like watching a sneezing contest in a kindergarten during flu season, with someone claiming “it’s tradition.” The Justice Department’s pandemic executions showed how not to handle public health crises or basic human decency.
Legal and Ethical Questions
The federal executions under Trump’s administration were a moral disaster. They included executing teenagers, people with intellectual disabilities, and those who didn’t directly kill anyone. It was like watching a surgeon use a chainsaw instead of a scalpel.
Each execution cost nearly $1 million, adding to the economic crisis. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor called it “not justice.” The justice department executed people quickly, leaving many to question the morality.
President Biden put a stop to these executions, commuting 37 death sentences and imposing a moratorium. But the debate over the death penalty never seems to end. It’s like a never-ending horror movie. The legal questions surrounding federal executions are as complex as ever.
