Joe Biden, Who Vowed to Abolish Executions, Urged to Commute Death Row Sentences
On 3/4/21 at 6:36 AM EST
As President Joe Biden approaches the mid-way point of his first 100 days in office, activists and civil rights groups are continuing to call on him to take action on ending the federal death penalty.
Several were carried out during former president Donald Trump s lame duck months and the final three executions took place just days before Biden s inauguration.
On a campaign website, Biden a death penalty opponent pledged that, as president, he would work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level, and incentivize states to follow the federal government s example. But he has yet to speak on the issue since becoming president.
Donald Trump Executioners May Have Misled Courts, Sparking Calls for Investigation
On 2/23/21 at 4:22 AM EST
Conflicting accounts of the federal executions that took place in the final months of Donald Trump s presidency have prompted calls for an investigation into whether executioners deliberately misled the courts.
According to the Associated Press, executioners likened the deaths by lethal injection to falling asleep in sworn accounts they called gurneys beds and referred to final breaths as snores.
The sanitized accounts of the executions at the U.S Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, differed drastically from the reports provided by AP and other eyewitnesses, who described how the stomachs of inmates rolled, shook and shuddered as the pentobarbital injections took effect, according to AP.
Dozens of civil rights and advocacy organizations are calling on the Biden administration to immediately halt federal executions after an unprecedented run of.