Who are some death row inmates on the hot seat after Trump’s re-election?
President-elect Donald Trump has made a bold promise to end the Biden-Harris administration’s moratorium on federal executions once he returns to office next year. This move is expected to put 40 federal death row inmates on notice, signaling a shift in the country’s approach to capital punishment.
According to the Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. government has executed 50 inmates since 1927, with notable cases including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and Cold War spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. This number pales in comparison to the more than 1,500 condemned inmates executed by individual states over the last 50 years.
During Trump’s first term in office, the government carried out death sentences for 13 federal prisoners, marking the highest number of federal executions under any president in a century. However, President Biden implemented a moratorium on federal executions upon taking office in 2021.
Some of the high-profile offenders currently on death row in U.S. Bureau of Prisons custody include:
1. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: The surviving Boston Marathon bomber who, along with his brother Tamerlan, planted explosives at the event in 2013, resulting in three deaths and hundreds of injuries. Tsarnaev, now 31, is being held at the U.S. Penitentiary-Florence in Colorado.
2. Dylann Roof: A White supremacist who carried out a mass shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina in 2015, killing nine Black parishioners. Roof, now 30, is imprisoned at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
3. Brandon Council: A Philadelphia drug kingpin charged with a dozen murders, including a bank robbery in South Carolina where two women were killed. Council, now 39, is on death row in Terre Haute.
4. Chadrick Fulks and Brandon Basham: Two career thieves who kidnapped, raped, and killed two women during a violent crime spree in 2005. Both Fulks, 47, and Basham, 43, are awaiting execution in Terre Haute.
5. Kaboni Savage: A Philadelphia drug kingpin responsible for ordering 12 murders, including an arson attack that killed six people. Savage, now 49, is also being held in Florence.
6. Daryl Lawrence: A serial bank robber who killed a police officer during an attempted robbery in Columbus, Ohio, in 2005. Lawrence, 49, is on death row in Terre Haute.
7. Robert Bowers: The former truck driver who fatally shot 11 Jewish worshipers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018. Bowers, now 52, received a death sentence in 2023 and is on death row in Terre Haute.
President Trump has also indicated his intention to expand the death penalty to include other crimes such as child rape, human trafficking, and drug trafficking. The death penalty is typically reserved for the most heinous crimes, with courts carefully weighing aggravating factors against mitigating ones to ensure fair and consistent sentencing.
While the issue of capital punishment remains controversial, the impending changes in federal execution policies under the upcoming Trump administration will undoubtedly impact the future of these high-profile cases. Stay tuned for updates as the debate on the death penalty continues to unfold.
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