The U.S. Justice Department has decided to revoke its policy regarding federal executions that permitted the use of a single-drug lethal injection protocol utilizing pentobarbital. This decision follows a government assessment that expressed worries about the risk of “unnecessary pain and suffering” associated with this method.
Attorney General Merrick Garland’s directive to dismantle the lethal injection procedure comes just ahead of the anticipated return of President-elect Donald Trump, who is anticipated to reinstate federal executions during his administration. Trump’s Justice Department may opt to reinstate the previous protocol that employed pentobarbital as the sole drug for executions.
Since 2021, a halt on federal executions has remained in effect, resulting in only three inmates currently on federal death row. This change came about after President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 individuals to life imprisonment.
The evaluation conducted by the government regarding the possible risks associated with pentobarbital could lead to significant developments. Legal actions have emerged in several states where pentobarbital is the predominant execution method, which could pave the way for nationwide reviews of execution protocols.
According to a report released recently, the Justice Department’s scrutiny of scientific and medical studies revealed a considerable level of “significant uncertainty” surrounding whether pentobarbital, when used alone, inflicts unnecessary pain and suffering. In response to this ambiguity, Garland emphasized in his memorandum that the Department should prioritize humane treatment and strive to prevent unnecessary pain and suffering. He indicated that the protocol should not be reinstated “unless and until that uncertainty is resolved.”
The report from the Office of Legal Policy within the Justice Department also highlighted that the Food and Drug Administration has “not reviewed or approved” the high-dose usage of pentobarbital for lethal purposes.
Originally, the pentobarbital protocol was introduced by Bill Barr, who served as attorney general during Trump’s initial term, replacing a three-drug combination that was previously employed before Trump’s presidency. During Trump’s tenure, a total of 13 federal executions were carried out, the highest number under any president in contemporary U.S. history.
Under Trump’s leadership, there was also an effort to present the execution process in a sanitized manner. Government attorneys attempted to describe lethal injection as akin to falling asleep, labeling gurneys as “beds” and referring to final breaths as “snores.” However, media accounts from witnesses, including those from The Associated Press, documented distressing reactions from inmates, such as convulsions and muscular spasms, during the execution process at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. The AP observed every federal execution during that time.
Legal battles concerning reports of convulsions experienced by inmates were prominent throughout the execution series. Defense attorney claims argued that these involuntary movements suggested that pentobarbital induced flash pulmonary edema, which would result in a suffocating or drowning-like anguish. The U.S. Constitution forbids execution methods deemed “cruel and unusual.”
Several states also maintain policies that allow for single-drug executions with pentobarbital. Just last month, Tennessee announced its intention to utilize a single-drug method for executions, which had been suspended since 2022, whereas the prior method required a combination of three different drugs.
Legal representative Shawn Nolan, who advocates for federal death row inmates, remarked that the report unequivocally establishes that “no jurisdiction, federal or state, should continue using this cruel, unconstitutional execution method.” Kelley Henry, who leads the federal public defender’s habeas unit in Nashville, expressed that the review serves as “a damning condemnation of the use of pentobarbital to poison prisoners to death,” calling for Tennessee to immediately withdraw its execution protocol.
As a result of Biden’s decision to commute sentences, a number of individuals previously sentenced to death, including those convicted of murder involving police officers, military personnel, and serious violent offenses on federal property, have been spared execution.
Currently, only three federal inmates remain under a death sentence. They include Dylann Roof, responsible for the racially motivated shootings of nine African American churchgoers in 2015; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the perpetrator of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 individuals at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, marking the deadliest antisemitic incident in American history.
