Death row inmates: How many people are awaiting federal execution in the US?
IN THE United States, there are over 2,500 prisoners on death row, but only some of them are awaiting federal execution.
Here we take a look at those who are awaiting federal execution.
How many people are awaiting federal execution in the US?
Capital punishment is a legal penalty under the criminal justice system of the United States federal government.
As of April 12, 2023, there are 43 people awaiting federal execution, according to the .
Of those 43 people, 19 of them are White, 17 of them are Black, six are Latinx, and one is Asian.
While there might be 43 people on federal death row, it is not known when they will be executed because Attorney General Merrick Garland imposed a moratorium on federal executions in 2021.
The halt was issued after the Trump administration carried out 13 executions in six months and is meant to give the Justice Department time to conduct a review of its policies and procedures, according to the .
“The Department of Justice must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States, but is also treated fairly and humanely,” Garland said. “That obligation has special force in capital cases.”
At this time, it is unclear when they will resume.
Who is on death row?
The death row inmates include:
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- Shannon Agofsky
- Jerome Billie Allen
- Aquila Marcivicci Barnette
- Eugene Kenneth Barrett
- Brandon Basham
- Anthony Battle
- Jason Meier Brown
- Carlos Caro
- Wesley Coonce
- Odell Corley
- Brandon Council
- Christopher Cramer
- Len Davis
- Joseph Ebron
- Ricky Fackrell
- Edward Fields
- Chadrick Fulks
- Marvin Gabrion
- Edgar Garcia
- Thomas Hager
- Charles Hall
- Norris Holder
- Richard Allen Jackson
- Jurijus Kadamovas
- Dryln Lawrence
- Kenneth Lighty
- Iouri Mikhel
- Ronald Mikos
- Jeffrey Williams Paul
- James H. Roane Jr.
- Julius Robinson
- Dylann Roof
- David Runyon
- Ricardo Sanchez Jr.
- Thomas Sanders
- Kaboni Savage
- Mark Snarr
- Rejon Taylor
- Richard Tipton
- Jorge Torrez
- Daniel Troya
- Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
- Alejandro Umana
What is the longest anyone has spent on death row?
Gary Alvord was the nation's longest-serving death row inmate.
He was sentenced to death on April 9, 1974, and spent 40 years behind bars before he died of natural causes in 2013 at the age of 66.
He was convicted of murdering Georgia Tully, 53; Ann Herrman, 36, and Lynne Herrman, 18, in Hillsborough County, Florida, after breaking into a residence and strangling the women with a nylon cord.
Alvord raped Lynne before killing her. He suffered from schizophrenia and had no close family.
In the time Alvord spent on death row, 75 other inmates were executed in Florida.
Bill Sheppard, who represented Alvord for almost four decades, said: “Gary is a product of a sick system. He was a living example of why we should not have the death penalty.
"...I would love for the state of Florida to tell us how much money they wasted trying to kill a guy they couldn’t kill.
"The death penalty is getting us nothing but broke," he added.
Do death row inmates choose a last meal?
In many US states, death row prisoners create a menu for their last meal.
Food photographer Henry Hargreaves compiled a photograph series of death row inmates' last meals after becoming fascinated with the tradition in 2011.
"I dug into [researching] it ... and found a public record [of the meals]. For the first time, these people became humanized," he told .
His series No Seconds and A Year of Killing explores the inmates' requested last meals through staged photographs.
He said: "You don't know if they're being served on china plates, or plastic, or eating on their laps, or at a wooden table, so I tried to explore all these variations."
Victor Feguer, who was lethally injected in 1963 for kidnap and murder, requested a single olive with a pit in it for his last meal.
Notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who was convicted of rape and 33 counts of murder, ordered 12 fried shrimp, a bucket of original recipe KFC chicken, french fries, and a pound of strawberries before he was lethally injected.
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Timothy McVeigh, a domestic terrorist who carried out the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, wanted two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream.
Stephen Anderson, who died by lethal injection in 2002 for his crimes, specifically wanted two grilled cheese sandwiches, a pint of cottage cheese, Hominy/corn mixture, peach pie, chocolate-chip ice cream, and radishes.