Urge President Biden: Commute the Row, Demolish the Death Chamber & Abolish the Death Penalty

President Joe Biden

NOTICE: DEADLINE FOR NEXT DELIVERY IS PRESIDENTS DAY, 2024

Please join us in calling on President Biden to declare the federal death penalty over by taking the following actions:

  • Commute the sentences of those currently on federal and military death rows;
  • Deauthorize all pending federal capital trial cases and establish guidelines prohibiting authorization of any new death penalty prosecutions during your administration;
  • 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
  • Order the Federal Bureau of Prisons to demolish the federal execution chamber and the building in which it is housed at the Federal Correctional Institution at Terre Haute;
  • Pledge to support and sign the Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act (currently H.R. 4633/S.B. 2299), which abolishes federal and military death penalty laws, removes the possibility of death sentences, and mandates fair re-sentencing of those currently on federal and military death rows.

BACKGROUND:

President Biden pledged during his campaign to work to abolish the federal death penalty. He deserves credit for appointing an Attorney General who is not setting execution dates and who is "studying the issue." Some death notices have been withdrawn, however the Department of Justice is still seeking death in some cases. Also, we have recently learned that corrections officers at the federal death row are staging "mock executions." It is time for President Biden to be unequivocal on this matter.

Former President Donald Trump oversaw an unprecedented 13 executions in the final six months of his term in office, making him the most-executing president since the 1940's.  Trump ignored clemency petitions filed for his consideration as well as the pleas of some victim family members who opposed the executions. Details of these cases raise questions of innocence/culpability, issues around serious mental illness, intellectual capacity, fairness, racial bias and other horrific issues that plague our modern death penalty.


Sponsored by

To: President Joe Biden
From: [Your Name]

Mr. President,

Thank you for signaling clearly that your administration will not allow executions of federal prisoners to continue. In addition, we urge you to:

* Commute the sentences of those currently on federal and military death rows;
* Deauthorize all pending federal capital trial cases and establish guidelines prohibiting authorization of any new death penalty prosecutions during your administration;
* 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
* Order the Federal Bureau of Prisons to demolish the federal execution chamber and the building in which it is housed at the Federal Correctional Institution at Terre Haute;
* Pledge to support and sign the Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act (currently H.R. 4633/S.B. 2299), which abolishes federal and military death penalty laws, removes the possibility of death sentences, and mandates fair re-sentencing of those currently on federal and military death rows.

Thank you,