Trump and Barr Aim to Kill
I used to believe that some people deserved to die. A few years later, after a discussion with my older sibling, I came to the conclusion that neither I nor any other person had the power to control someone’s life or death. A year or so ago, I added ‘victim’ to the list of adjectives I now use to describe myself, and my opinion on the death penalty switched with it. Being victimized, being assaulted, it is easy to slip into the idea of wanting vengeance on those who have hurt you. Now, I have seen the Trump administration’s “hard on crime” policy, and it sickens me.
The first federal execution of 2020 occurred on July 14th, with the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee, breaking a 17-year hiatus in federal executions. Since then, there has been an average of two federal executions per month, sometimes more, in what Clint Smith of the Atlantic says, "can only be called a killing spree." The Trump administration’s pattern of rushing federal executions killed more inmates in Trump’s last few months than in the past 67 years combined.
The Trump administration executed thirteen people, the Washington Post reports. Just five days before Trump left office, on January 15th, the federal government executed Dustin John Higgs.
The Roles of William Barr and Donald Trump
Before stepping down as Attorney General, William Barr played an instrumental role in federal executions. ProPublica states that Barr authorized a new lethal injection drug and oversaw all capital cases, working to hasten the executions and approving them. After Barr stepped down, Jeffery Rosen took over his role as Attorney General.
Trump has also shown his support for the death penalty. ProPublica’s Isaac Arnsdorf reports that Trump said, “‘Death penalty all the way,’ Trump said at a February 2016 campaign event in New Hampshire. ‘I’ve always supported the death penalty. I don’t even understand people that don’t.’”
Pentobarbital
All of these people were executed using pentobarbital, a cocktail of drugs that simulates drowning, arguably one of the most painful ways to die. Attorneys for the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) argue that because of how quickly the drug takes effect, prisoners feel nothing, making the drug humane.
Controversies
While each of these cases drew the attention of anti-death penalty advocates, two cases sparked interest with the general public: those of Brandon Bernard, who was executed December 10th, 2020, and Dustin Higgs, who was executed on January 15th. Bernard was involved in a robbery-turned-murder, during which he was 18. Bernard’s young age during the crime combined with his status as merely an accomplice generated a recent media frenzy and several petitions. Higgs was in a similar situation: he didn’t pull the trigger, but the jury spared the life of the man who did.
Cory Johnson, another death row inmate, and Dustin Higgs both tested positive for COVID-19. Because it is unknown how the lethal injection interacts with COVID, a federal court ruled that their executions should have been pushed back to March, by which point Biden, who opposes the death penalty, would have been in office. However, a higher court overruled that decision, and Johnson and Higgs were executed.
I used to believe in the death penalty. I understand how one can be convinced that a jury of twelve can decide the fate of one. I have been victimized; I have family that has been killed. My cousin-in-law, Chase Maddox, was shot and killed while serving a warrant. His wife, my cousin Alex, went into labor days later. He never got to meet his son. It was this last fact that broke me - I have always disapproved of Chase going into the police force; I don’t believe in or trust the police as an institution. But he was still a good person, and he would have been a wonderful father.
I can understand the appeal of the death penalty and feel that it is wrong. Two seemingly differing actions and ideals can coexist.
I am not trying to say that my moral compass is superior to those whose love ones have been murdered. I understand where they are coming from. I really do. I have wished those that killed my family ill. I have wished that Chase’s killer (who was killed in the shootout) suffered for the pain he caused Alex, and I was grateful for his death for a short while. I am not perfect. But even when I believed in the death penalty wholeheartedly, a small, nagging part of my brain asked: What if they killed the wrong man? What if that person didn't deserve to die? What if one death doesn’t justify another?
By Mika Abney