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               Researh Sevice






The Federal Death Penalty:

Recent Developments



July 28, 2020
In July 2019, under U.S. Attorney General Barr's direction, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) adopted a
revised Federal Execution Protocol Addendum and promptly scheduled the executions of five federal
death row inmates. The addendum replaced the previous three-drug protocol used in federal executions
with a single-drug procedure. Five death row inmates, who were sentenced to death in 1999, 2003, and
2004, were scheduled to be executed at U.S. Penitentiary Terre Haute, IN. After delay due to ongoing
appeals, the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee on July 14, 2020, ended a 17-year moratorium on the federal
death penalty.
This Insight focuses on federal death penalty policy in the context of death penalty practice in the country
overall.

Capital Punishment Policy
The federal government practiced capital punishment from the country's beginning until 1972, when the
U.S. Supreme Court (in Purman v. Georgia) found particular applications of capital punishment to be
unconstitutional under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution. In 1976, the Supreme
Court considered revised state statutes (in Gregg v. Georgia and several other decisions), and held that the
death penalty was constitutional under certain, limited circumstances. From 1976 through July 27, 2020,
the federal government executed six individuals, including three in July 2020. As of July 28, 2020, there
are 59 individuals on federal death row. While the U.S. military justice system has capital punishment as a
sentencing option, it has not executed anyone since 1961. As of January 2020, four individuals reside on
the inilitar's death row.
Since the Gregg decision in 1976, most executions in the United States have been carried out by the
states; from 1976 through July 28, 2020, states have executed 1,516 individuals. Over 2,500 individuals
currently reside on death row across 30 states, including one inmate in New Hampshire even though it
abolished the death penalty in 2019. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia do not have the death
penalty.



                                                                Congressional Research Service
                                                                  https://crsreports.congress.gov
                                                                                      IN11474

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