New DOJ Execution Protocols Authorize Feds to Use Firing Squads, Electrocution or the Gas Chamber to Carry Out it’s Legalized Murders

From [HERE] As federal executions continue to be carried out the government will soon have access to more options for putting prisoners to death.

Starting Dec. 24, an amendment made to the nation’s federal execution protocols by the Department of Justice will no longer limit the method to lethal injection. Instead, the federal government will be permitted to use “any other manner prescribed by the law of the state in which the sentence was imposed.”

If a state does not permit the death penalty in the jurisdiction a defendant is convicted, the statute directs the court to designate another state whose law does “provide for the implementation of a sentence of death, and the sentence shall be implemented in the latter state in the manner prescribed by such law.”

That legally opens the door for the authorized use of firing squads, electrocution or the gas chamber at the federal penitentiary in western Vigo County where executions take place. The rule states that alternative methods may be used if lethal injection is found to be "unconstitutional or otherwise unavailable."

All states that use the death penalty allow lethal injection. It is also the primary method in all states where other methods are allowed, according to Death Penalty Information Center data.

As lethal injection drugs become difficult to obtain, some states have begun looking at alternative methods for carrying out death sentences. Alabama joined Oklahoma and Mississippi in 2018 approving the use of nitrogen gas to execute prisoners, allowing the state to asphyxiate condemned inmates in some cases.

In some states, inmates can choose the method of their execution. Florida allows inmates to specifically ask to be put to death by electrocution. In Washington state, inmates can ask to be put to death by hanging.

In Utah, prisoners sentenced before May 2004 can choose to be killed by a firing squad. The state law there also authorizes the use of a firing squad if lethal injection drugs aren't available.

The last time a firing squad entered the discussion at Terre Haute was in July before Daniel Lewis Lee became the first man executed in nearly two decades.

Lee and other plaintiffs raised concerns about the effects experienced after the drug used in lethal injection is administered. 

The injection of pentobaribital — which some scientists say causes pulmonary edema and a drowning sensation during death — violates their Eighth Amendment rights and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, they argued.

The pitched death by firing squad as an alternative they said was likely to reduce the risk of experiencing severe pain. The Bureau of Prisons rejected the appeal.

Ngozi Ndulue, senior director of research and special projects for the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, could not directly speak to the mindset behind the DOJ's order.

“What I will say that Attorney General William Barr has really been aggressively pursuing executions, and part of that aggressive pursuit is this amendment,” Ndulue said. 

She added that further evidence of Barr's stance is the fact that the nation has seen federal executions return and be prioritized in a year where other countless other initiatives have been put on hold due to safety concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. [MORE]