United States suspends federal death penalty | Abroad

“The Justice Department must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only given the rights that guarantee the constitution and the laws of the United States, but is also treated fairly and humanely,” Garland said. According to NBC News, the minister said there are “concerns” about the arbitrariness of the death penalty and the impact it has on black Americans.

The death penalty at the federal level was not carried out for a long time, partly because of several lawsuits over the administration of lethal injections. That 17-year hiatus has come to an end since last year under then-President Donald Trump. Thirteen people were killed between July 2020 and January 2021.

Current President Joe Biden opposes the death penalty. Currently 46 people remain in federal prisons on death row. It concerns 20 white people, 18 black people, 7 Latinos and one of Asian descent.

The decision of the justice minister does not mean that there will be no more executions in the United States, because the criminal law in some states still allows it. This is also where the most executions take place, although the last 13 executions under Trump have been more in one year than in all 50 states combined.

According to Amnesty International, the death penalty is much more common in the US than against a white perpetrator. While black and white murder victims are roughly equal in the US, 80 percent of all executed since 1977 have been convicted of murdering a white person, the human rights organization said.

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