Developments in three federal capital cases at the transition between presidential administrations illustrate the choices that the new Biden
Department of Justice will face in formulating its policy on the federal death penalty. The cases, each at a critical turning point in determining whether to move forward in a potentially capital prosecution, will shed light on the strength of the DOJ leadership’s commitment to implementing the president’s pledge to end the federal death penalty.
On January 19, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit overturned federal death-row prisoner
Kenneth Barrett’s 2005 death sentence for the murder of an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper. On that same day, federal prosecutors notified the U.S. District Court in Connecticut that they were no longer seeking a new sentencing hearing for