WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new report from the Wren Collective warns that the United States is witnessing a sharp and troubling reversal in its approach to capital punishment, describing a “federal and state-level thirst for blood” as President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi expand executions nationwide.
The report explains that “as recently as last year, the death penalty was in serious decline,” but that “in a matter of mere months, the death penalty landscape has completely shifted.” On his first day back in office, Trump vowed to revive executions and build on the legacy of his first term, which ended with what the report described as “an unprecedented killing spree.”
Shortly after taking office, Bondi lifted the Biden-era moratorium on federal executions and directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty “in all eligible cases.” According to the report, she has authorized capital punishment against 19 defendants in nine months, “far outpacing the one death penalty case authorized under the Biden administration.” Several judges have already rejected those efforts, warning that the administration “leapfrogged important constitutional and statutory rights” and disregarded “decades of law, professional standards, and norms.”
The Justice Department’s policy shift has also extended beyond the federal level. The Wren Collective notes that Bondi has been “working with state leaders to inspire a similar expansion on the state level,” urging prosecutors to pursue death sentences for the 37 people whose executions were previously commuted by President Biden. The report calls the move “extremely unusual” and warns it could retraumatize survivors while consuming millions of dollars in state resources.
Bondi has also promised to “remove [the] barrier” to executions by helping states obtain lethal injection drugs, with the report calling it “a throwback to when Bondi was a state AG herself and maneuvered using a controversial drug to resume Florida executions.”
According to the report, this coordinated effort has fueled a surge in executions nationwide. “The U.S. has seen a total of 41 executions — the highest number in over a decade — overwhelmingly driven by Southern states,” the Wren Collective wrote. Florida alone “has killed a record-breaking 15 people so far this year.”
Fifteen states are now “urging Bondi to fight Supreme Court precedent,” pushing for death sentences in cases that defy the Court’s 2008 prohibition on executions for non-homicide crimes. The report situates these developments within “our country’s hard right turn toward authoritarianism, prioritizing punitive punishments and expanding executive and prosecutorial power.”
The report also warns of the Supreme Court’s reluctance to intervene in cases that “will clearly violate the 8th Amendment.” In Alabama, the nitrogen gas execution of Anthony Boyd left witnesses describing how he “thrashed violently against his restraints and began a series of deep, agonized breaths that lasted for more than 15 minutes.”
Still, the Wren Collective points to several positive developments. In Texas, the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals “blocked Robert Roberson’s execution” under its 2013 junk science law, while in Ohio, a bipartisan bill to abolish capital punishment “is gaining traction,” supported by 27 former lawmakers who originally voted to enact it.
“Thanks to the advocacy of Ajamu, Koosed, and others,” the report concludes, “the Buckeye State stands on the precipice of abolishing the death penalty nearly 45 years after its enactment.”
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