Published on
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
byCommon Dreams
'Truly Grotesque': On Way Out the Door, Trump Prioritizes Bringing Back
Executions by Firing Squad and Electrocution
"Over 2,000 Americans died yesterday and 266,000 are dead and the gangsters
in this regime are focused on bringing back the electric chair and making it
easier to spew poison in the air. The Republican Party is unfit to govern."
byJake Johnson, staff writer
President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr arrive together for
a presentation in the East Room of the White House May 22, 2019 in
Washington, D.C.
Among the slew of potentially destructive policy changes the Trump
administration is rushing to implement on its way out of power is a rule
that would authorize the return of electrocutions and firing squads for
federal executions, an effort critics slammed as a twisted priority amid
deadly public health and economic crises.
ProPublica reported Wednesday that the rule, first published in the Federal
Register by the U.S. Justice Department in August, "has raced through the
process with little notice but unusual speed-and deadly consequences."
"This rule could reintroduce firing squads and electrocutions for federal
executions, giving the government more options for administering capital
punishment as drugs used in lethal injections become unavailable,"
ProPublica noted. "The Justice Department surfaced the proposal in August
and accepted public comments for only 30 days, instead of the usual 60. The
rule cleared White House review on Nov. 6, meaning it could be finalized any
day."
After carrying out the first federal execution in 17 years over the summer,
the Trump administration last Friday scheduled the executions of three
additional death row inmates, bringing the total number of federal
executions planned just ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration to
five. The executions are set to be carried out by lethal injection.
Given Biden's stated opposition to the death penalty and promise to work as
president to bring about its end, it's possible that the Trump
administration's rule reviving the firing squad and electrocutions will
"never be put into practice," ProPublica noted.
But the effort to expedite the policy change-as well as dozens of others
aimed at rolling back worker protections, gutting environmental regulations,
and further restricting immigration-was viewed as a glimpse of the kind of
damage Trump could do in the lame-duck session.
"Over 2,000 Americans died yesterday and 266,000 are dead and the gangsters
in this regime are focused on bringing back the electric chair and making it
easier to spew poison in the air," tweeted Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.). "The
Republican Party is unfit to govern."
Other last-minute changes the Trump White House is working to finalize ahead
of Inauguration Day, according to ProPublica, include proposals to:
Make it more difficult to justify federal pollution restrictions;
Make it easier for companies to classify workers as independent contractors
and deprive them of employee benefits;
Raise speed limits on poultry lines; and
Shorten application times for asylum-seekers.
Matthew Kent, a regulatory policy associate with Public Citizen, said the
flood of rules could be difficult for the Biden administration to quickly
reverse.
"The bottom line is the Trump administration is trying to get things
published in the Federal Register, leaving the next administration to sort
out the mess," Kent told ProPublica. "There are some real roadblocks to
Biden being able to wave a magic wand on these."
Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License. Feel free to republish and share widely.
