A bipartisan group of nearly 100 criminal justice leaders — including over 50 current elected local prosecutors, seven current Attorneys General, seven current and former Police Chiefs and Sheriffs, and 20 former U.S. Attorneys, DOJ officials, and judges — on Monday sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris urging them to take all actions within their power to "immediately and definitively" end the death penalty in the United States. The letter and release list the signatories.
The letter urges the new administration to take multifaceted and lasting steps that future administrations cannot readily undo: commuting the sentences of all those on federal death row and withdrawing current death penalty warrants, dismantling the death chamber at Terre Haute, urging the AG to instruct all federal prosecutors to not seek the death penalty in future cases, supporting and incentivizing state efforts to end capital punishment, and supporting legislation to end the federal death penalty.
Federal executions remained dormant for 17 years before former President Donald Trump revived the practice in July 2020 executing thirteen people in six months. There are currently 49 people on federal death row.