Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act

Key Points

• This bill would completely ban the federal death penalty. No one could be sentenced to death or executed under federal law after it takes effect. This applies to all federal crimes, regardless of how serious they are.
• People already sitting on federal death row would get new sentences. A judge would resentence them, likely to life in prison without parole or another lengthy sentence instead of execution.
• This bill only covers federal cases. States that still have the death penalty on their books would not be affected. The vast majority of death row inmates in the U.S. are held under state law, not federal law.
• The bill was introduced by Sen. Durbin with 17 Democratic co-sponsors and has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Given the current makeup of Congress, the bill faces very long odds of advancing.