In July 2020, federal executions were resumed for the first time in 17 years in the middle of a deadly pandemic. From the start, about the risk that these federal executions would pose to everyone involved. Executions require the congregation of — prison staff, reporters, spiritual advisors, family members, and witnesses. Many of these people travel from around the country to Terre Haute, Indiana. They stay at local hotels, eat at local restaurants, spend time in the prison, and then return home.
On July 2, 2020, the ACLU filed Hartkemeyer v. Barr on behalf of Reverend Seigen Hartkemeyer, a spiritual advisor who had ministered to Wesley Purkey, executed by the federal government on July 14, 2020, for more than a decade. Reverend Hartkemeyer was forced to choose between his health and performing his spiritual duties to Mr. Purkey in his final moments. The ACLU’s suit — which was denied by the courts — focused on Reverend Hartkemeyer’s protections under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Five months later, we have seen the predictions made in that case come to life. Yusuf Ahmed Nur acted as the spiritual advisor to Orlando Hall, who was executed on Nov. 19. A few days later, Mr. Nur tested positive for COVID-19. In response to a new lawsuit brought on behalf of prisoners at the Terre Haute prison, the BOP has now disclosed that eight members of the execution team from Mr. Hall’s case tested positive for COVID-19 after the execution. It also admitted that two of the executioners in the execution chamber with Mr. Nur removed their masks while in the execution chamber with Mr. Nur and Mr. Hall.
Documents we received from discovery in Hartkemeyer v. Barr, and by suing the government after a FOIA request went unanswered, have shown how completely negligent the government has been in its approach to contact tracing, testing, and other important measures to slow the spread of COVID-19. The result has been major spikes of infection in Terre Haute Federal Correctional Complex, as well as in Vigo County, where the prison is located.
As of December 14, 2020, the federal government still plans to execute at least three more people before Inauguration Day. That’s despite an executive order to curtail movement in the state of Indiana, and the fact that an outgoing president has not executed anyone since 1889. The rush to execute people during a pandemic is reckless, dangerous, and depraved. It must not happen.
LITIGATION
- Hartkemeyer v. Barr
- ACLU v. Barr, FOIA Lawsuit
- 12-7 Production (documents showing BOP spent more than 3.5 million dollars to transfer BOP to federal executions)
- 11-13 Production Pt 2
- 11-13 Production Pt 1
- 10-16 Production
- Smith v. Barr (not an ACLU case, but builds off Hartkemeyer and addresses COVID and federal executions)
- Motion for Preliminary Injunction
- Declaration: Yusuf Ahmed Nur (spiritual advisor for Orlando Hall who contracted COVID-19 after attending the executions)
- Declaration: Joe Goldenson (medical expert describing risk of superspreader executions)
- Declaration: Rick Winter (BOP attorney admitting eight members of execution team tested positive for COVID-19 following the Orlando Hall execution)
- Second motion for Preliminary Injunction + Supporting Memorandum
OPEN LETTERS
- An open letter from Sister Helen Prejean and Denny LeBoeuf to Assistant U.S. Attorneys
- Former Indiana Corrections Officers Petition Acting Attorney General Rosen to Halt Federal Executions Until After COVID-19
- Letter from the American Medical Association to Acting Attorney General Rosen
- Letter from the American Bar Association to Acting Attorney General Rosen
BLOGS
- We’ve Had Enough Death in 2020. Why Add More? Yusuf Ahmed Nur, spiritual advisor for Orlando Hall, December 7, 2020
- Not Even a Global Pandemic Could Stop the Federal Government from Pursuing a String of Back-to-Back Executions This Summer, Cassandra Stubbs, director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project, August 26, 2020
- The Federal Government’s Decision to Proceed with Executions During the Pandemic Puts Me in an Impossible Position, Reverend Siegen Hartkemeyer, spiritual advisor for Wesley Purkey, July 2, 2020
PRESS
- , NBC, December 9, 2020
- , Newsweek, December 9, 2020
- , Mother Jones, December 8, 2020
- , HuffPost, December 7, 2020
- , HuffPost, December 4, 2020
- , Slate
- , Washington Post, November 13, 2020
- , WIRED, September 24, 2020
Related Issues
-
Press ReleaseFeb 2021
More than 80 Civil Rights Organizations Ask President Biden to Commute Federal Death Sentences and Issue a MoratoriumMore than 80 Civil Rights Organizations Ask President Biden to Commute Federal Death Sentences and Issue a Moratorium
WASHINGTON — A group of 82 organizations signed on to a letter sent to President Biden today asking him to “act on [his] promise of ensuring equality, equity, and justice in our criminal legal system by immediately commuting the sentences of all individuals under federal sentence of death, and reinstating the federal moratorium on the use of the death penalty.” The letter was circulated by the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The letter comes after the Trump administration rushed through 13 executions in six months, actions which Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor condemned in no uncertain terms, saying: “this is not justice.” These executions took place during a pandemic, and reporters, lawyers, spiritual advisors, and prison staff all developed documented cases of COVID-19 after attending executions, as Terre Haute Correctional Complex shot up to be the Bureau of Prisons facility with the most cases of COVID-19 in the country. “The execution spree we saw under Donald Trump was unprecedented, unlawful, and unjust,” said Cynthia Roseberry, deputy director of policy, ACLU’s Justice Division. “They senselessly spread COVID-19 and defied the laws and norms that were intended to act as guardrails. As states around the country are increasingly turning their backs on the death penalty, it is imperative that President Biden take every step in his power to ensure that the atrocities we saw under the Trump administration can never take place again. That means issuing a moratorium and granting clemency to the 49 people on the federal death row.” “This letter, which has been signed on to by the leading organizations in the death penalty abolition movement and civil and human rights community, sends a clear message to President Biden that we are watching and ready to welcome bold action towards abolition from this administration,” said Kristina Roth, senior advocate for criminal justice programs at Amnesty International USA. “The federal death penalty is riddled with the same problems of racism, error, and arbitrariness that the death penalty in the states are. It is used exclusively on people who cannot afford good legal representation. It’s an embarrassment to our country and our legal system. President Biden must end this barbaric punishment once and for all.” “One only has to look at the 13 executions that the Trump administration rushed through to be reminded of all the reasons the federal death penalty must be repealed,” said Lisa Cylar Barrett, director of policy at the NAACP LDF. “In six months, they killed two Black men who committed crimes as teenagers. They killed victims of serious sexual trauma and violence. The steamrolled the wishes of a sovereign tribal nation. All but one of the people they put to death killed white people. There is no way to extricate the federal death penalty from the racism that taints it, and the stakes here are life and death. We must end this system once and for all.” “The tremendous outpouring of support for this letter represents a backlash to the senseless killing spree we saw under the Trump administration,” said Sakira Cook, senior director of the justice reform program at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “The actions of that administration underscored the cruelty and injustice of the death penalty, which has no place in the United States. The Biden administration must acknowledge the loss and trauma these past six months have caused for so many people — advocates, lawyers, family members, and prison staff who have been forced to carry out these killings. It must ensure that this can never happen again.” The letter asks the Biden-Harris administration to take the following steps, which are all within its power: Ensure that all people currently under federal sentence of death have their sentences commuted or reduced; Issue a federal moratorium on federal executions; Dismantle the federal death chamber at FCC Terre Haute; Rescind the lethal injection protocol; rescind the “Manner of Execution” regulation that took effect in December 2020; rescind internal DOJ guidelines on litigating death row cases that took effect in December 2020; Establish clear executive guidelines that prohibit federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty; and Withdraw authorization for all pending death penalty trial cases. The letter states: “By taking immediate action to commute the sentences of the 49 individuals on federal death row, you have the ability to show that the Biden-Harris administration will govern with mercy and will work to put the might of the federal government behind policies that recognize, reflect, and respect the dignity, humanity, and rights of all individuals.” The full letter is online, here. -
Press ReleaseJan 2021
Capital Punishment
ACLU Statement on the 13th and Final Federal ExecutionACLU Statement on the 13th and Final Federal Execution
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — The federal government carried out the execution of Dustin Higgs — a Black man who did not kill anyone — shortly after 1 a.m., marking the 13th federal execution in just six months. This was the final execution of the Trump presidency, and it will be the last federal execution this country ever holds if President-elect Biden makes good on his promise to end the federal death penalty. Cassandra Stubbs, director of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project, issued the following statement: “Tonight marks the end of a cruel, inhumane, and lawless federal execution spree. Over the last six months, we have witnessed the federal government execute 13 individuals in our name, often in the middle of the night, and over the objections of lower courts. Our federal government killed two Black men for crimes they committed 20 years ago as teenagers; it killed a woman who was a victim of unthinkable sexual violence and torture; it killed two Black men who didn’t kill anyone; and a man with an intellectual disability so severe that it’s impossible to ignore in his final words. The Supreme Court paved the way for many of these executions to go forward despite lower court findings that the executions were unconstitutional or barred by federal law. These executions were not justice — they simply perpetuated a cycle of pain, trauma, and bloodlust. “These executions became super-spreader events, and Terre Haute shot up to become the federal prison with the most cases of COVID-19. At a moment when more Americans are dying daily than did in 9/11, our federal government rushed forward to carry out executions that spread COVID-19 around Indiana and to the communities the Bureau of Prison staff returned home to. As people across the country are struggling to find work and pay rent, the federal government spent nearly a million dollars to kill each person it put to death. “President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to end the federal death penalty. He must honor that commitment, and he must begin this work by taking steps fully within his power: He must commute the sentences of people on the federal death row to life without parole, and he must drop death from all pending trials. This swift action is the only adequate response to the degrading and unconstitutional execution spree and to ensure that the federal government is never able to do this again.”