WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2021 — American Bar Association President Patricia Lee Refo sent a letter Tuesday to acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen requesting that he postpone the federal executions scheduled for this week. Refo expressed urgent concern over the federal government’s plan to move forward with the executions despite a continuing surge in COVID-19 cases nationwide and the recent confirmation by a federal court in Indiana that executions carried out at the Federal Correctional Complex Terre Haute create a substantial risk of COVID-19 case transmission at the prison and in the surrounding communities. Postponing these executions is the only way to protect the due process rights of these defendants and the best way to reduce the risk of further COVID-19 transmission in a community and a country at large that has already been devastated by this virus Refo said.
Read the full letter here.
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