WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2020) The fast-tracking of Federal executions has failed to achieve the objective of making President Donald Trump appear strong on crime, but has revealed the administration's lack of knowledge about the death penalty, activists told Sputnik.
Brandon Bernard, who is scheduled to be executed on Thursday for his role in a 1999 triple homicide, will become the eighth US federal inmate put to death since July. Although executions by state governments are not uncommon, the US federal government had not carried out an execution in 17 years before this summer.
"They [Trump administration officials] say they should be executed... to specifically deter people who committed capital offenses but it has not deterred crimes such as gun crimes and mass shootings," Morgan State University Criminal Justice Program Coordinator Natasha Pratt-Harris said. "This is people flexing their muscle, showing that they are tough. But it shows that they aren't knowledgeable about the death penalty."
Pratt-Harris, who is also an associate professor of sociology and anthropology, said it is also important to realize that the death penalty is not absolute - every single person who commits a capital offense is not sentenced to death.
"After 30 years as a student, professor and researcher, one of the things I say consistently is that the death penalty is arbitrary and random," Pratt-Harris said.
She also said the Trump administration's approach does not acknowledge the flaws of the criminal justice system such as racial disparities.
"The death penalty is problematic, is arbitrarily administrated, depends on the race of the victim," Pratt-Harris said.
Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) Senior Director of Research and Special Projects, Ngozi Ndulue, said the push by Trump and Attorney General William Barr to hasten these executions is troubling and extraordinary.
"When we see these executions, what we're really talking about is outside norm. It's unprecedented behavior and absolutely exceptional," Ndulue said. "I don't think anyone could have expected the extent to which Barr would try to execute so many people in such a short space of time."
Ndulue said Trump's Justice Department is on track to execute thirteen federal inmates before the president's term ends on January 20. Between 1988 and 2019, she noted, there were only three federal executions in the United States.
"You have to go back to the 1890s to see numbers like this. I do think this is an aberration, because general and national trends indicate declining numbers. The country is on track for historic lows in the number of executions. Now, the federal government is making up half of the executions. They have staked out a different path," Ndulue said.
Then to add insult to injury, she added, is that Trump and Barr have disregarded the entreaties of prison reform advocates, family members and others to suspend any executions until after the COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control.
Ndulue said there is concrete evidence the federal executions have caused a spike in COVID-19 cases in prisons. She said one death row inmate's lawyer and another's spiritual advisor have tested positive for COVID-19 while about 100 Bureau of Prison employees have been exposed.
"We're in the midst of a huge spike in cases, but Barr has decided this is their priority," Ndulue said.
