Abstract
This Comment analyzes the federal death penalty. Part one discusses the history of the federal death penalty, from its roots in the superstitions and religious dogma of colonial America to the Drug Kingpin Act and the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994. Part two examines the Drug Kingpin Act, the first federal move into the death penalty arena since the landmark Supreme Court case of Furman v. Georgia. Next, the Comment explores Congress' broad expansion of the federal death penalty in its most recent statute, the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994. Part four examines the practical application of the Drug Kingpin Act in the case of Juan Raul Garza, the man who likely will be the first federal execution of the twenty-first century. Part four also contemplates the constitutionality of the federal death penalty, focusing on the recent Supreme Court case of Jones v. United States, the first treatment of the new death penalty law by this nation's highest court. Finally, part five considers the implications, pragmatic and political, of renewed federal executions.
Recommended Citation
Christopher Q. Cutler, Death Resurrected: The Reimplementation of the Federal Death Penalty, 23 SEATTLE U. L. REV. 1189 (2000).
