Source:
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) joined a coalition of civil rights organizations to send a letter urging President Biden to immediately reinstate the federal moratorium on the use of the death penalty, and commute the sentences of all individuals on federal death row. The letter comes after the Trump administration’s reckless execution spree this summer.
The letter asks the Biden-Harris administration to take the following steps, which are all within its power:
- Ensure that all people currently under federal sentence of death have their sentences commuted or reduced;
- Issue a federal moratorium on federal executions;
- Dismantle the federal death chamber at FCC Terre Haute;
- Rescind the lethal injection protocol; rescind the “Manner of Execution” regulation that took effect in December 2020; rescind internal DOJ guidelines on litigating death row cases that took effect in December 2020;
- Establish clear executive guidelines that prohibit federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty; and
- Withdraw authorization for all pending death penalty trial cases.
Read the full letter here.
