A look at the federal death penalty after the election

This page focuses on Florida’s death penalty. But—after last night’s election, which confirmed Donald Trump will serve a second term in the White House as the 47th President—I think it’s worth a post on the federal death penalty.

The federal death penalty applies in every state for crimes prosecuted under federal law.¹ It is used rarely, and only 16 federal executions have been completed in “the modern era.” Of those 16, 13 were completed “in a six-month period between July 2020 and January 2021”—at the end of Trump’s first term in the White House.² President Biden has not conducted any executions during his term in the White House.

Federal death row is housed at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, which is also where federal executions are carried out.³ There are currently 40 prisoners on federal death row—all male.⁴ The longest-serving inmates were sentenced in 1993.⁵

Over the years since his last term in the White House, Trump has made several comments and suggestions about expanding the death penalty and conducting executions. At a rally in October, Trump called for the death penalty for all migrants who kill an American citizen or law enforcement officer.⁶

A recent article by The Guardian forecasted that a second term of Trump in the White House will mean the return of federal executions, stating that Trump “is expected to pursue a spree of executions that could fast-track the cases of people on federals death row.”⁷ Indeed, it is likely that Trump’s return to the White House will mean the restart of federal executions.

1. Federal Death Penalty, Death Penalty Info. Ctr., https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/federal-death-penalty.

2. Id.; see also Executions Under the Federal Death Penalty, Death Penalty Info. Ctr., https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/federal-death-penalty/executions-under-the-federal-death-penalty.

3. See USP Terre Haute, Fed. Bureau of Prisons, https://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/thp/.

4. List of Federal Death Row Prisoners, Death Penalty Info. Ctr., https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/federal-death-penalty/list-of-federal-death-row-prisoners.

5. Id.

6. See the video here:

Another discussion of prior comments Trump made can be found here.

7. Sam Levin, ‘I’m terrified I’ll be executed’: Trump win could bring spree of death row killings, The Guardian (Oct. 14, 2024), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/14/death-row-capital-punishment-trump-election.