Attorney General Merrick Garland orders pause of federal executions

[George II]

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

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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]

1. If someone believes in the death penatly I assume they would want it to apply to

a couple of people I can think of who KNEW the virus would KILL and purposely did nothing!

[marble falls]

2. Good!!!! End the death penalty and life sentences without parole.

[rockfordfile]

3. I support the death penalty as a option

I couldn't imagine a serial killer getting three meals a day when that pos took lives of others.

[Major Nikon]

8. You don't get to pick and choose how it will be used

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 haven’t can no longer make a claim for membership.

[question everything]

4. About time!

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]

5. Studies over the years have concluded that states that have abolished the death penalty have fewer..

...capital murders than those with the death penalty.

[question everything]

6. Also, didn't Whinny Donny rush to execute some in his last days in office?

What a horrible creature he is

[George II]

10. Yes, most of those executed under his DOJ were between the election and Inauguration Day.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

7. I have been against the death penalty for nearly half a century and it is so nice to read this even

if it doesn't quite address the backwards and inhuman practice that most civilized societies have banned.

[Major Nikon]

9. Correction: all civilized societies have banned

[thesquanderer]

11. I'm glad, but wish he had done it on his first day.

I only hope nobody has been executed between then and now.

[George II]

12. No one has. I'm sure if anyone was already scheduled they would have done this sooner...

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.

[Dawson Leery]

13. kick