News Scan

DC Circuit Hears Federal Death Penalty Challenge:  A three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held oral argument last Wednesday on a lawsuit by condemned federal murderers seeking to block their executions.  John Kruzel of The Hill reports that last fall, after U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr announced his intention to resume federal executions and scheduled four murderers to receive lethal injections, the four won a district court ruling temporarily suspending their executions.

The question before the court last week was whether the 1994 Federal Death Penalty ACT requires that federal executions follow the protocol of the state where the murder was committed.  Justice Department Attorney Melissa Patterson argued that while the law requires the federal government to match the states method, which is lethal injection, it did not require the use of the same drugs.  Responding to this, one of the Circuit Judges asked if the “Attorney General could use fentanyl?”   “Absolutely,” responded Patterson.

It should be noted that the Attorney General plans a single-drug protocol utilizing the anesthetic pentobarbital sodium.  This is the preferred lethal injection drug, which has often been unavailable to states due to pressure on manufacturers by death penalty opponents.  Dozens of lawsuits by condemned murderers have resulted in federal court rulings halting executions because the states have been forced to use other less-preferred drugs than pentobarbital sodium.  Because of this, if the court accepts the murderer’s claims, some may face execution with drugs which are less effective than one the Attorney General has designated.