29 March 2020 :

Coronavirus Pandemic Halts Executions, Perhaps for the Foreseeable Future. The public health crisis from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has halted executions in the United States and, legal experts say, is likely to continue to do for the foreseeable future. With nine of the eleven serious death warrants between March 15 and June 30, 2020 scheduled in Texas, the decisions by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) to issue 60-day stays for the two prisoners with March execution dates suggests that other stays are likely to follow. Citing “the current health crisis and the enormous resources needed to address that emergency,” the TCCA stayed John Hummel’s March 18, 2020 execution on March 16, and three days later halted the March 25 execution of Tracy Beatty. Viewed in concert with the TCCA’s March 13 First Emergency Order Regarding the COVID-19 State of Disaster—which directs all Texas courts to modify or suspend court deadlines and procedures during the current State of Disaster when necessary “to avoid risk to court staff, parties, attorneys, jurors, and the public”—it seems unlikely that executions would resume during that period. “When courts aren’t even capable of dealing with the ordinary business, it is unrealistic to expect they’ll be capable of dealing with extraordinary business,” DPIC Executive Director Robert Dunham told UPI. The prospects of new short-term execution dates being set during the height of the pandemic also appears increasingly remote. The Wall Street Journal reports that prosecutors in Georgia, whose two-week death warrant period is the shortest in the nation, said executions are “taking a back seat to more urgent priorities.” The pandemic health risks associated with execution-related procedures are well recognized. Clemency proceedings bring lawyers, board members, witnesses, and staff into close contact. Executions gather corrections personnel, lawyers, family members of the victims and defendants, spiritual advisers, and media witnesses into enclosed spaces without the possibility of adequate social distancing.