{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-booker-durbin-and-colleagues-request-investigation-of-trump-administrations-unprecedented-spree-of-federal-executions", "Warren, Booker, Durbin, and Colleagues Request Investigation of Trump Administration's Unprecedented Spree of Federal Executions", "2020-12-22", "2020", "2020-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 22, 2020\n\t\t\t Warren, Booker, Durbin, and Colleagues Request Investigation of Trump Administration's Unprecedented Spree of Federal Executions \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\"Prior to the Trump\r\nAdministration's revival of federal executions, the federal government had not\r\nexecuted a federal prisoner since 2003 and has only executed three people in\r\nthe previous 50 years.\" \"The reversal of\r\nlong-standing DOJ policies and protocols for federal executions raise numerous\r\nquestions about the fairness and application of these policies and protocols by\r\nthe Trump Administration.\" Text\r\nof Letter (PDF) Washington, DC - United States Senators Elizabeth Warren\r\n(D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chris Van Hollen\r\n(D-Md.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.),\r\nand Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio.), sent a letter to Michael E. Horowitz, Inspector\r\nGeneral of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), seeking an investigation of\r\nthe frenzied and unprecedented \"spree of federal executions during\r\n[President Trump's] lame-duck period.\"  In July 2020, the Trump Administration ended\r\na 17-year hiatus on federal executions when it executed Daniel Lewis Lee, and\r\nfollowed that with six more executions between July 16, 2020, and September 24,\r\n2020. Since his defeat at the polls in the November 2020 election, President\r\nTrump and political appointees at the DOJ have ramped\r\nup the pace of executions during the lame duck period of his presidency,\r\nwith executions of Orlando Hall on November 19, 2020, Brandon Bernard on\r\nDecember 10, 2020, and Alfred Bourgeois on December 11, 2020. Three more\r\nexecutions are\r\nscheduled mere days before the end of President Trump's term in January\r\n2021, including Lisa Montgomery, who would be the first woman to be put to\r\ndeath by the federal government in 67 years. \"This spree of executions marks a break with both modern history and\r\ndecades-old practice. Prior to the Trump Administration's revival of federal\r\nexecutions, the federal government had\r\nnot executed a federal prisoner since 2003 and has only executed three\r\npeople in the previous 50 years. And the executions that have and are scheduled\r\nto occur after November 3, 2020 are 'the first executions under a 'lame duck'\r\npresident in over 100 years,' and come\r\ndespite the fact that 'President-elect Joe Biden has said he intends to end\r\nthe use of capital punishment by the federal government while in office,'\"\r\nwrote the Senators. The reversal of long-standing DOJ policies and protocols for federal\r\nexecutions raise numerous questions about the fairness and application of these\r\npolicies and protocols by the Trump Administration, including the clear\r\nevidence that \"racial bias against defendants of color and in favor of\r\nwhite victims has a strong effect on who is capitally prosecuted, sentenced to\r\ndeath, and executed,\" whether concerns about botched executions have been fully\r\naddressed, and whether \"employing death sentences during a pandemic is\r\nunsafe, particularly\r\nwhen it requires inmates, their families, and legal representatives, and\r\nteams of federal execution specialists to travel to the federal prison in Terre\r\nHaute, Indiana, where executions are held.\" To address concerns, the lawmakers request that the investigation reviews\r\nthe following matters: \r\n What was the policy rationale\r\n     for the 2019 reversal of long-standing policies and processes that\r\n     prevented federal executions since 2003? Did DOJ officials conduct\r\n     appropriate analyses and review when determining whether to reverse those\r\n     policies and procedures?\r\n Does the application of the\r\n     federal death penalty under President Trump exhibit a pattern or practice\r\n     of racial bias?\r\n Has the Trump Administration\r\n     taken appropriate steps to ensure that federal executions are not botched\r\n     and are conducted in the most humane fashion possible?\r\n What are the costs of federal\r\n     executions? Why has the Bureau of Prisons used secretive, no-bid contracts\r\n     to obtain lethal injection drugs, and was the use of these contracts\r\n     appropriate?\r\n Has the Trump Administration\r\n     taken appropriate steps to ensure that families and legal representatives\r\n     of those that are put to death, and federal officials involved in\r\n     executions are protected from the spread of COVID-19?\r\n ###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-booker-durbin-and-colleagues-request-investigation-of-trump-administrations-unprecedented-spree-of-federal-executions"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7237298414111137, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}