A judge has asked federal prosecutors whether they will seek the death penalty against the white man accused in the killing of 10 Black people in Buffalo, New York, on May 14.
Their answer should be easy: no.
President Joe Biden promised to eliminate federal capital punishment and to encourage states to do the same. His attorney general, Merrick Garland, has said the U.S. should return to the virtual moratorium on federal executions that began in 2003 and ended with 13 people being put to death in the final six months of the Trump administration (nearly half of those executions took place after the 2020 election).
