Attorney General Merrick Garland has imposed a moratorium on scheduling federal executions, the Department of Justice announced on Thursday (press release available here).
In a memo to the Justice Department, Garland justified his decision to halt the deeply controversial practice, citing factors including its capricious application and disparate impact on people of color.
"Serious concerns have been raised about the continued use of the death penalty across the country, including arbitrariness in its application, disparate impact on people of color, and the troubling number of exonerations in capital and other serious cases," Garland said in the memo. "Those weighty concerns deserve careful study and evaluation by lawmakers."
There are 46 men currently on federal death row, and while there are more than 2,500 men and women on state death row, this directive from Garland does not halt those proceedings. Twelve men and one woman were executed during the last seven months of the former president's term.