Let’s start with one observation — why has this happened?
Easy — the appeal process in death penalty cases can be easily bogged down by the way the Department of Justice responds to defense efforts to derail the carrying out of death sentences. These are sentences imposed by federal district court judges, with the responsibility for carrying out the sentences placed in the hands of the federal Bureau of Prisons which is part of DOJ. As a result, the Executive Branch is not able to simply cancel the carrying out of such sentences which are authorized by Congress and affirmed by the Supreme Court to not violate the Eighth Amendment. So a liberal Presidential administration that disapproves of the death penalty can only interfere with the process, it cannot prevent the process from going forward — unless the President chooses to commute the sentence to something other than the “death penalty.”