Tag

#death-penalty

The use of capital punishment, particularly concerning expansion of the federal death penalty, execution of individuals with inadequate legal representation, and discriminatory application based on race or national origin.

2 incidents

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Federal Execution Restart: 13 Executions in 6 Months — Including First Woman in 67 Years

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. Several executions proceeded after the Supreme Court vacated lower-court stays. 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.

Outside the grading scale: Pre-Office Conduct

Central Park Five: Full-Page Ads Calling for Death Penalty, Refused to Apologize After Exoneration

The five teenagers — Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise — were 14 to 16 years old at the time of their arrest. They gave videotaped confessions after hours of unrecorded interrogation, recanted within weeks, and said the statements were coerced; the trial judge ruled the statements voluntary and admissible, and no court has made a finding of coercion. Their convictions were vacated in 2002 on the newly discovered evidence. In 2002, Matias Reyes confessed to the attack; DNA evidence confirmed his account and proved the five had not committed the rape. The city of New York settled with them for $41 million in 2014. Trump called the settlement 'a disgrace' and continued to maintain the five were guilty. On October 21, 2024 the five sued Trump for defamation in federal court in Philadelphia over his statements about them in the September 10, 2024 debate. His 1989 ads ran in the New York Times, Daily News, New York Post, and New York Newsday.