Overview
The federal death penalty applies in all 50 states and U.S. territories but is used relatively rarely. President Biden commuted the federal death sentences of 37 men on December 23, 2024, leaving just 3 prisoners on the federal death row. Sixteen federal executions have been carried out in the modern era, all by lethal injection, with 13 occurring in a six-month period between July 2020 and January 2021.
The federal death penalty was held unconstitutional following the Supreme Court’s opinion of Furman v. Georgia in 1972. Unlike the quick restoration of the death penalty in most states, the federal death penalty was not reinstated until 1988, and then only for a very narrow class of offenses. The Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 greatly expanded the number of eligible offenses to about 60.
The use of the federal death penalty in jurisdictions that have themselves opted not to have capital punishment — such as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and many states — has raised particular concerns about federal overreach into state matters.
News & Developments
News
May 07, 2025
Victims’ Families Remain Divided on Federal Death Penalty
Recent attention on the federal death penalty is highlighting the diverse opinions of victims’ families who have lost loved ones to violence. Like Americans from all walks of life, victims’ families hold a diverse set of views on capital punishment, shaped by their individual faith, political views, and personal reaction to being impacted by crime. Some support the death penalty, and others oppose it. Some victims’ family members are part of organizations…
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Apr 21, 2025
A.C.L.U. Lawsuit Seeks to Prevent Transfer of Former Federally Death-Sentenced Prisoners to “Supermax” Prison
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and several other organizations representing a group of formerly federally death-sentenced prisoners filed a federal lawsuit on April 16, 2025 seeking to prevent their transfer to the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado, known as“ADX.” The transfers were threatened by the Department of Justice in response to President Donald Trump’s January 20th Executive Order 14164, which…
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Apr 07, 2025
U.S. Attorney General Directs Prosecutors to Seek Death Penalty for Luigi Mangione, Marking First Federal Death Sentence Sought By This Trump Administration
On April 1, 2025, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced she has directed acting U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, Matthew Podolsky, to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione for the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. This is the first time AG Bondi has directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty since President Donald Trump assumed office in January 2025, when he issued an executive order including a call to“restore” the federal death penalty. In a…
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News
Jan 21, 2025
Among Flurry of First-Day Executive Orders, President Trump Issues Order on the Death Penalty
On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed more than two dozen Executive Orders, including a call to“restore” the federal death penalty. The Order, while lacking many important details, instructs the Department of Justice’s Attorney General to“pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use,” including the killing of a law enforcement officer or“a capital crime committed by an illegal alien present in this country” and to encourage…
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News
Jan 16, 2025
Department of Justice Withdraws Federal Execution Protocol and Keeps Moratorium on Executions in Place
Three and a half years after announcing its investigation into the federal death penalty protocol, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on January 15, 2025 that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is rescinding the federal government’s single-drug pentobarbital lethal injection protocol. The DOJ’s decision was based on what AG Garland called“significant uncertainty” about whether executions by pentobarbital caused unnecessary pain and suffering. The…
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