[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 196 (Wednesday, November 18, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H5876]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        FEDERAL EXECUTIONS DURING A PANDEMIC IS MORALLY BANKRUPT

  (Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, the Federal Government 
will execute a Black man named Orlando Hall in the middle of a deadly 
pandemic that is spiking toward unprecedented levels. The death penalty 
is cruel, unusual, barbaric, and immoral.
  Mr. Hall will be the eighth prisoner executed under Bill Barr's 
leadership since June--eight expedited executions since June in this 
country--and the first by a lame duck President in a century, the 
eighth one being done tomorrow.
  Carrying out Federal executions during a deadly pandemic puts 
hundreds of people at risk, from local community members, to Bureau of 
Prison employees, to lawyers and advocates.
  The Trump administration's choice to risk life in an expedited rush 
to take life is morally bankrupt.
  To quote my dear friend and late colleague Elijah Cummings, we, as 
United States citizens, are better than this.

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