US President, Donald Trump, is rushing to make a number of federal regulatory changes before President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20. One of those changes would allow some federal death-row inmates to be executed by means other than lethal injection.
According to a ProPublica report on Wednesday, before Trump’s term ends, he’s trying to push through “a proposed regulation that could see federal executions being carried out by firing squads.”
As the proposal notes, the default method for federal executions is lethal injection, except if a judge explicitly orders otherwise. But many states with the death penalty permit executions to be carried by other means, including by execution, firing squad, and nitrogen hypoxia.
The proposed rule change, according to the Department of Justice, “ensures that the Department was authorized to use the widest range of humane manners of execution permitted by law.”
It was reviewed by the White House and cleared on November 6th, and it would be a sharp contrast to incoming President Joe Biden’s policies, as he opposes the death penalty.
Meanwhile, firing squads are currently legal in three states—Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah but are illegal in other parts of the country.
The last time a firing squad was used was in Utah in 2010, after the conviction of a Ronnie Garder. Garder was convicted of the 1984 murder of Attorney Michael Burdell during an attempted escape from a courthouse.
According to ProPublica, the Trump administration is also hoping to make consequential regulatory changes in other areas such as immigration, environmental policy, energy standards and water use, and the regulation of major food plants.
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According to a ProPublica report on Wednesday, before Trump’s term ends, he’s trying to push through “a proposed regulation that could see federal executions being carried out by firing squads.”
As the proposal notes, the default method for federal executions is lethal injection, except if a judge explicitly orders otherwise. But many states with the death penalty permit executions to be carried by other means, including by execution, firing squad, and nitrogen hypoxia.
The proposed rule change, according to the Department of Justice, “ensures that the Department was authorized to use the widest range of humane manners of execution permitted by law.”
It was reviewed by the White House and cleared on November 6th, and it would be a sharp contrast to incoming President Joe Biden’s policies, as he opposes the death penalty.
Meanwhile, firing squads are currently legal in three states—Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah but are illegal in other parts of the country.
The last time a firing squad was used was in Utah in 2010, after the conviction of a Ronnie Garder. Garder was convicted of the 1984 murder of Attorney Michael Burdell during an attempted escape from a courthouse.
According to ProPublica, the Trump administration is also hoping to make consequential regulatory changes in other areas such as immigration, environmental policy, energy standards and water use, and the regulation of major food plants.
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