Federal executions could end under plan to scrap death penalty

Ending the death penalty for federal crimes is the goal of legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on May 20. The Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act would remove capital punishment as a possible sentence in federal court.

The measure says no person could be sentenced to death or executed for any violation of federal law once the law takes effect. That change would apply across the federal criminal code, from murder cases to certain terrorism‑related offenses that currently allow capital punishment.

Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts introduced the bill with 21 cosponsors.

Ending executions in federal cases

Federal prosecutors would lose the option of seeking a death sentence if the proposal becomes law. Courts handling federal criminal cases could impose other penalties permitted by statute, including life imprisonment.

The bill also prohibits the federal government from carrying out executions after the date the law takes effect. Even death sentences imposed before that point could no longer lead to an execution under federal authority.

The rule applies only to violations of federal law. State death‑penalty systems, which operate under their own statutes and courts, would remain unchanged.

Reopening existing death sentences

The legislation also reaches people already sentenced to death in federal cases. Anyone who received a federal death sentence before the law takes effect would have to return to court for resentencing.

The text states that those individuals “shall be resentenced,” requiring federal judges to replace the death sentence with another punishment allowed under federal law.

The bill does not detail the specific procedures courts would use for those hearings, but it makes clear that existing federal death sentences could not remain in place.

A direct rewrite of federal criminal penalties