{"slug":"trump-first-term-federal-executions-restart","title":"Federal Execution Restart: 13 Executions in 6 Months — Including First Woman in 67 Years","date":"2020-07-14","lastUpdated":"2021-01-16","description":"After a 17-year federal execution hiatus, the Trump administration carried out 13 federal executions in the final seven months of Trump's first term — more than any other administration in the modern era. The executions were carried out at unusual speed, used a controversial single-drug lethal injection protocol, and included the first execution of a woman by the federal government since 1953. Three of the executions occurred during the presidential transition, in the weeks between Biden's election and his inauguration.","summary":"The Trump DOJ resumed federal executions in July 2020 after 17 years with no federal executions. The 13 executions were the most in any comparable period since at least the 1940s. Attorney General Barr overrode objections from career death penalty specialists about the single-drug protocol. Multiple executions were carried out over last-minute legal challenges. Lisa Montgomery, the first woman executed by the federal government since 1953, was executed despite documented severe mental illness and a history of extreme childhood sexual abuse.","category":"rule-of-law","severity":"critical","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/13/us/politics/federal-executions-daniel-lewis-lee.html","title":"Federal Government Carries Out First Execution in 17 Years","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/lisa-montgomery-executed/2021/01/13/ae8ceaa0-55b3-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html","title":"Lisa Montgomery becomes first woman executed by federal government in 67 years","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/12/usa-federal-executions-trump-barr/","title":"USA: Trump and Barr's killing spree must stop","publisher":"Amnesty International"},{"url":"https://apnews.com/article/trump-executions-federal-death-row-2020-ba6ed4a8fef24f62be64e1e0cdf17f88","title":"Trump administration executes 13 people in last months of term","publisher":"The Associated Press"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["death-penalty","executions","first-term","rule-of-law","Lisa-Montgomery","Barr"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"2019-07-25","title":"Barr announces execution restart","summary":"Attorney General Barr announces the DOJ will resume federal executions after a 17-year hiatus, adopting a new single-drug pentobarbital lethal injection protocol."},{"date":"2020-07-14","title":"First execution — Daniel Lewis Lee","summary":"Daniel Lewis Lee is executed at USP Terre Haute — the first federal execution since 2003. The execution is carried out despite last-minute appeals from victims' family members who had asked for a delay. It proceeds over a federal court stay that the government asks the Supreme Court to lift at 2 a.m."},{"date":"2020-11-19","title":"Executions continue after election","summary":"With Biden having won the election, the Trump administration carries out additional executions, including Orlando Hall (November 19). Biden has said he opposes the death penalty and will work to end federal executions."},{"date":"2021-01-13","title":"Lisa Montgomery executed — first woman since 1953","summary":"Lisa Montgomery is executed by lethal injection. Her attorneys had filed extensive documentation of her history of extreme childhood sexual and physical abuse and resulting severe mental illness. Multiple Supreme Court justices had noted concerns about her mental state. The execution proceeds."},{"date":"2021-01-16","title":"Final executions — Corey Johnson and Dustin Higgs","summary":"Corey Johnson and Dustin Higgs are executed four days before Biden's inauguration — the final executions of the Trump administration's 13-execution surge. Johnson's attorneys had documented he had intellectual disabilities; the execution proceeds."}],"location":{"name":"USP Terre Haute, Indiana","lat":39.4667,"lng":-87.3133},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"executive-action","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"Convention Against Torture","article":"Article 16","provision":"Prohibition on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment — single-drug pentobarbital protocol challenged as potentially causing suffering; executions of severely mentally ill individuals raise Article 16 concerns"},{"statute":"International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights","article":"Article 6","provision":"Right to life — the ICCPR's Second Optional Protocol requires states that have not abolished the death penalty to apply the most stringent safeguards; rushing executions over active legal challenges raises Article 6 concerns"}],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"13 individuals executed under the Trump federal execution restart; Lisa Montgomery (executed despite documented severe mental illness); inmates executed over active court-ordered stays","structuredVictims":[{"name":"Lisa Montgomery","group":"Federal death row inmate","status":"Executed January 13, 2021 — first woman executed by federal government since 1953; documented history of severe childhood abuse and mental illness"}],"structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"President of the United States","institution":"White House"},{"name":"William Barr","role":"Attorney General; directed execution restart","institution":"Department of Justice"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2021-01-16","summary":"Updated with final executions before inauguration."}]}}