After a second federal inmate scheduled to be executed next month recently tested positive for the coronavirus, several senators are asking the Department of Justice’s independent watchdog agency to investigate what motivated the Trump administration to resume the federal death penalty this year.
Since July, the Justice Department under Attorney General William Barr has put 10 federal inmates to death, with three more executions scheduled in January just days before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. That is the most executions in a presidential lame-duck period in more than 130 years.
The federal government’s ramping up of executions ended a 17-year moratorium under previous administrations, and came amid a pandemic that led all states to halt executions.
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