Durbin Calls For An End To The Federal Death Penalty

Durbin Calls For An End To The Federal Death Penalty

Durbin reintroduced the bicameral Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act with Rep. Ayanna Pressley today; Bill is particularly important given last month's announcement by Trump's DOJ that it was bringing back firing squads & seeking to return to the use of electrocution and lethal gas for executions

WASHINGTON - In a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called for the end of the federal death penalty. Earlier today, Durbin and U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-07) led 17 Senators and 20 Representatives in the reintroduction of the Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act, bicameral legislation to prohibit the use of the death penalty at the federal level and require re-sentencing of those currently on death row. This bill is particularly important today given that last month, the Department of Justice (DOJ) under President Trump announced that it was bringing back firing squads and seeking to return to the use of electrocution and lethal gas for executions.

Durbin began his speech by sharing the story of Tony Carruthers, a man with a severe mental health condition, whom the State of Tennessee is planning to execute tomorrow.

"Tomorrow, the State of Tennessee is planning to kill Tony Carruthers, a man with a severe mental health condition, who was forced to represent himself in a murder trial 30 years ago. Forensic evidence never connected him to the crime, key witness testimony has been discredited, and fingerprints and DNA found at the crime scene were never fully investigated even though they could exonerate Mr. Carruthers. Despite all of this, his execution is scheduled to continue tomorrow as planned," Durbin said. "By midnight tomorrow, Mr. Carruthers will depart this earth for a crime he may not have committed."

Durbin then explained how his position on the death penalty has evolved over the years. One study found that more than four percent of individuals on death row were likely innocent-and this figure does not include those who have pled guilty to crimes they didn't commit to avoid execution. For many on death row, their punishment stems from their inability to afford counsel and their struggles with mental illness. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, approximately 90 percent of people facing capital charges cannot afford their own attorney. And researchers at the University of North Carolina have found that 43 percent of individuals executed between 2000 and 2015 had been diagnosed with a mental illness at some point in their life.

"First, there have been numerous cases of potentially innocent people who have been executed, including as recently as 2024. And over 200 people who were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death have been exonerated since 1973," Durbin said. "The death penalty is not a punishment reserved for the worst of the worst; it is one reserved for the poorest of the poor. In addition, it is a penalty disproportionately faced by Black Americans. Despite being 13 percent of the U.S. population, Black people make up 41 percent of all the prisoners on death row… And on top of all this, it is far from clear that the death penalty even serves its primary purpose. There has yet to be conclusive evidence demonstrating that the death penalty deters people from committing heinous crimes compared to the threat of life in prison."

Durbin continued, "Faced with all of this, 15 years ago I announced that I could no longer support the death penalty. Luckily, I was in good company. I was not the first public official whose thinking about this issue changed. Supreme Court Justices Harry Blackmun and John Paul Stevens had a similar journey to my own."

While Supreme Court Justices Harry Blackmun and John Paul Stevens initially ruled in favor of the death penalty, they eventually came to the same conclusion: that after decades of trying to make it fair, we had largely failed as a nation.

In 2000, Illinois Governor George Ryan instituted the first statewide moratorium on executions in the nation. In 2003, Governor Ryan cleared death row by commuting the sentences of 167 inmates to life in prison. In 2021, his first year in office, President Biden instituted a moratorium on the federal death penalty. Then, in December 2024, in response to a request from Durbin and 11 other Senators, President Biden commuted the sentences of most individuals on federal death row to life imprisonment.

Durbin then spoke about today's bill introduction. The Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act of 2026 would end the use of the death penalty by the federal government. Specifically, the bill would prohibit the imposition of the death penalty as punishment for any violation of federal law and require the re-sentencing of those previously sentenced to death row. The legislation was originally introduced by Durbin and Pressley in July 2019 following DOJ's announcement under the first Trump Administration that it would resume the use of the death penalty.

"This bill is particularly important today. Last month, President Trump's Department of Justice announced that it was bringing back firing squads and seeking to return to the use of electrocution and lethal gas for executions," Durbin said. "Meanwhile, the state of Alabama became the first government in the world to carry out executions by nitrogen suffocation-an untested and inhumane death penalty method… These barbaric tactics will be remembered as a stain on our nation's history. We must not engage in the very conduct we seek to punish. My bill would ensure we do not."

Durbin concluded, "I understand this subject brings out people's strongest emotions. When faced with the horrific acts of some people on death row, the hatred they hold, the pain they caused, it is understandable to want them to face a punishment commensurate with their crimes. But how many innocent people must be put to death to feed our feelings of vengeance? How many Americans must be denied justice in the name of grief? State-sanctioned killing is not an effective way to make our country safe. It is not guaranteed to only punish the guilty. It is not who we are. I hope my colleagues will join me and together end this cruel and unusual punishment once and for all."

In July 2020, the first Trump Administration ended a 17-year hiatus on federal executions when it executed Daniel Lewis Lee and followed that with six more executions between July 16, 2020, and September 24, 2020. After his defeat at the polls in the November 2020 election, President Trump and political appointees at DOJ ramped up the pace of executions during the lame duck period of his presidency. In December 2020, Durbin led a letter to the DOJ Inspector General seeking an investigation of the frenzied and unprecedented "spree of federal executions during [President Trump's] lame-duck period."

On the first day of his second term, President Trump issued an executive order entitled "Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety," directing the Attorney General to pursue the death penalty wherever possible, and in February 2025, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi officially lifted the Biden Administration's moratorium on federal executions.

Video of Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Audio of Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Footage of Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.

Bill text is available here.

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