DOJ Proposes Rule to Reduce Time Between Capital Conviction and Capital Punishment

The Trump administration is reasserting its support for capital punishment in a federal rule proposal it says will reduce the time between conviction and execution in death penalty cases.

The Justice Department’s (DOJ) proposed rule will streamline the federal review of capital cases, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in a DOJ statement Tuesday.

The proposal aims to restore the effect of a process implemented in 1996 and amended in 2006, which provided expedited review of federal habeas petitions in states that the Attorney General certified had set a post-conviction “process for the appointment, compensation and payment of reasonable litigation expenses of competent counsel.”

“In Chapter 154 of Title 28 of the United States Code, Congress established an accelerated process for the review of federal habeas petitions arising from State capital cases, which otherwise can languish for years at various stages of federal adjudication,” the DOJ statement reads.

However, the DOJ states that previous administrations imposed additional rules and more stringent requirements that Congress had not included in the law.

As a result, no state has successfully used the streamlined procedures, according to the DOJ statement.

The proposed rule would remove these obstacles, enabling faster decisions in states’ certification requests. It also will make certification decisions final as opposed to subject to a five-year limited term, a reform that should encourage more states to apply for certification, the proposal states.

The proposal states that Chapter 154 of Title 128 only requires that the Attorney General certify that the state has a mechanism for appointing, compensating, and paying the expenses for competent counsel. This does not include setting nationwide standards for these requirements.

Congress did not include those standards when it wrote Chapter 154 even though some special interests had encouraged it to do so, the proposal states.

“The Attorney General has no authority to overrule Congress and prescribe standards that others unsuccessfully urged Congress to impose,” the proposal reads.

The DOJ says the proposed rule is another step in line with Trump’s January 20 executive order “Restoring the Death Penalty and Promoting Public Safety.” In that executive order, the president called for laws that authorize capital punishment to be enforced.

This includes ordering federal law enforcement to cooperate with state and local officials in cases which may implicate federal law and lifting a 2021 Biden Administration moratorium on federal executions.

That moratorium resulted in the Dec. 23, 2024 commutation of death sentences for 37 federal death row prisoners.

In his executive order, Trump instructed the Attorney General to “evaluate the places of imprisonment and conditions of confinement for each of the 37 murderers whose Federal death sentences were commuted … [and] take all lawful and appropriate action to ensure that these offenders are imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose.”

Bondi issued a Feb. 5, 2025 memorandum outlining her plans to implement Trump’s executive order. In the Tuesday statement, she stated the proposed rule is the next step in that process.

“This proposed rule will help states achieve the promise of swift and effective justice for victims of capital crimes,” said Bondi. “We are fulfilling the Department of Justice’s commitment to restoring the death penalty as the ultimate punishment for the worst criminals in America.”