Death row inmates ask appeals court to rehear challenge to executions

Attorneys for four federal inmates on death row have asked an appeals court to rehear their case challenging the Trump administration’s plan to resume executions after a divided panel of judges ruled that the process could move forward.

In a filing Friday, the inmates’ legal team asked the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to take up the case two weeks after a panel ruled 2-1 against them, upholding the administration’s new execution protocol.

“In its haste to uphold the Protocol, the panel majority disregarded foundational principles of statutory interpretation, administrative law, and judicial review,” the lawyers wrote. “These errors are troubling in their own right, as they could affect a wide range of this Court’s administrative-law cases. But the consequences here are far more imminent and grave. The panel’s decision will allow the Government to execute scores of federal inmates pursuant to an unlawful protocol.”

Earlier this month, two Trump-appointed D.C. Circuit judges lifted an injunction against the new protocols, which establish uniform, nationwide regulations for federal executions.

The inmates argue that the protocols violate the Federal Death Penalty Act (FDPA), which requires federal executions to abide by the capital punishment laws in the states where they take place.

A district court judge agreed, imposing an injunction in November.

“There is no statute that gives the (federal government) the authority to establish a single implementation procedure for all federal executions,” Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee, wrote at the time. “To the contrary, Congress, through the FDPA, expressly reserved those decisions for the states of conviction.”