Death Penalty Moratorium

Bills that call for a moratorium on federal executions pending a study by a National Commission on the Death Penalty have been introduced in both Houses of Congress. The study would examine issues such as racial and geographic disparities, adequacy of representation, DNA testing, and whether the federal government should seek the death penalty in states that have none.

• S. 233 by Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI)

• H.R. 1038 by Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)

Read Mandatory Justice: 18 Reforms to the Death Penalty (PDF file), a report issued July 3, 2001 after a year of study and deliberation by an impressive bipartisan blue-ribbon committee chaired by the woman who prosecuted Timothy McVeigh, a former chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, and a former judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. .