Joe Biden can still block a second Trump administration from resuming executions

Joe Biden campaigned against death penalty In his successful 2020 presidential run. Victory was followed by a unprecedented string federal executions during Donald TrumpThe first period of. Whether Trump can pick up where he left off depends on Biden, who has the authority to commute the death sentences of federal prisoners to life imprisonment before he leaves office.

The President has previously expressed his desire for this outcome. Here is the campaign website said in 2020 On the abolition of the death penalty:

More than 160 people sentenced to death in this country since 1973 were later exonerated. Because we can’t always be sure to resolve death penalty cases correctly, Biden will seek to introduce legislation that would eliminate the death penalty at the federal level and encourage states to follow the federal government’s example. These individuals must instead serve life sentences without probation or parole.

Biden will leave office without passing federal legislation to eliminate the death penalty (so there is no federal precedent for states to follow). But he can still make up for the last part by commuting death sentences to life imprisonment.

It is not clear whether it will happen or not. Despite his campaign promise, it is difficult to say that the Biden administration is completely against the death penalty. Federal government during its tenure there are both he called for new death sentences and defended existing ones.

Of course, Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, imposed a sanction. execution moratorium In 2021, the management does not fulfill these. But the incoming Trump team will probably reverse coursewith 40 people listed federal death penalty.

If that happens, there could be court challenges to executions on a case-by-case basis, as was the case during Trump’s first term. But Supreme CourtThe Republican-appointed majority helped carry the death penalty to its fullest extent. On January 15, 2021, just days before Biden was inaugurated, the high court overturned the lower court’s stay of execution. Dustin HiggsHe became the 13th federal inmate to be executed in six months. Before July 2020, the federal government had not executed anyone in 17 years.

“Unfortunately, it is not surprising that the Court granted this extraordinary request,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote. dissent in the Higgs case. He continued:

Over the past six months, this Court has repeatedly sidestepped the usual deliberative processes, often at the request of the Government, and allowed it to proceed with an unprecedented, sky-high execution schedule. Given due judicial consideration, some of the Government’s arguments may be valid, and some or even most of these executions may ultimately be allowed to proceed. Others may not. In either case, the Court should not have authorized these executions without resolving these critical issues. The stakes were very high.

There is little reason to think this is a Supreme Court with a majority GOP appointee. Election Day strengthenedTrump would act differently in his second term. It’s up to Biden to decide whether to give Trump and his judges a chance.

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This article was first published on: MSNBC.com

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