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All federal executions in the United States are carried out in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Isolated from the facility’s general population, and under extra layers of security, 44 condemned men are held in the U.S. prison bureau’s Special Confinement Unit — America’s death row. But actual executions at that level are extraordinarily rare. For two decades, the U.S. didn’t carry out even one.

Everything changed in July 2020, when President Donald Trump’s attorney general instructed the U.S. justice department to reopen the Terre Haute death chamber and start killing people again.

To satisfy transparency requirements, the prison bureau allowed a small pool of journalists inside the death chamber to document parts of the execution process. For six months, WFIU sent a team of public radio reporters to Terre Haute over and over to report on each of the 13 executions in person. And when the killing finally ended in January 2021, we kept reporting. For two years, the team collected documents and interviewed sources connected to every execution carried out by the U.S. government since 2001.

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The federal death penalty is supposed to be the “gold standard” of justice, reserved for the “worst of the worst” offenders. Our reporting found the opposite. Experts believe U.S. prison bureau employees “botched” half or more of the executions, prolonging the dying process and possibly inflicting extreme pain. All of this happened at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Executions became super-spreader events, sickening prisoners and staff alike throughout the larger complex.

For the 44 men on federal death row, the upcoming presidential election is a matter of life and death. Under President Joe Biden there’s a moratorium on federal death sentences, but Biden hasn’t followed through on his campaign promise to repeal the death penalty. That leaves the door open for a Republican candidate to resume executions.

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Our team

George Hale covers federal death row at WFIU. He was part of the public media team that spent six months reporting on the Trump execution spree. The team’s execution coverage earned multiple awards, including a regional Edward R. Murrow award.

Contributors: WFIU researcher Cathy Knapp, News Director Sara Wittmeyer, Editor Perry Metz

The Rush to Kill team is also grateful for significant support provided by NPR, including Graham Smith and Meg Anderson from the NPR Investigations Desk as well as Eva Tesfaye, Lauren Gonzales, Adelina Lancianese and Argin Hutchins.

More than a dozen other public radio journalists contributed original reporting.

Rush to Kill is available at wfiu.org/rushtokill.

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Watch reporter/producer George Hale on Indiana Newsdesk:

 

Episodes

Dec 8, 2023

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Episode 8: In The Shadows

Coming up in this final episode, we'll see how the continued existence of the American death penalty is leaving its mark on our society.

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Nov 23, 2023

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Episode 7: Intellectual Disability

The Trump administration sends two intellectually disabled men to die, despite being declared unconstitutional from the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Nov 16, 2023

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Episode 6: Culpability

What happens when a prosecutor changes her mind and tries to save someone she helped condemn to death?

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Nov 9, 2023

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Episode 5: Lynch Law

In this episode, we’ll hear from experts convinced that justice officials considered race when they selected which people to kill — and when. Why that might be, and what it says about the federal death penalty’s ability to deliver justice, and mercy, without bias.

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Nov 2, 2023

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Episode 4: Poison

Lethal injection is thought to be painless and thought to be quick, seemingly the most humane choice. But what if we've got it all wrong?

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Oct 26, 2023

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Episode 3: American Woman

The U.S. Supreme Court prohibits executing people deemed mentally incompetent. But the Trump administration selected two people with severe mental illness for execution, including the only woman on federal death row.

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Oct 19, 2023

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Episode 2: Inventing Closure

This week, we’re looking back to the first executions ever carried out in Terre Haute. The death penalty promises closure, or justice, but does it deliver? And what changes when the victims of a crime number in the thousands?

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Oct 13, 2023

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Episode 1: The Gold Standard

How U.S. justice officials convinced top judges to sign off to kill 14 condemned Americans in the middle of a pandemic. How laws passed decades ago — by people in power today — made it all possible. And why it could happen again.

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Oct 6, 2023

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Introducing: Rush to Kill

Go inside the secretive facility where the U.S. carries out all federal executions in this new eight-part podcast from WFIU.

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Ongoing Coverage

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October 9, 2024

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Vial of Pentobarbital with syringe

Indiana Department of Correction refuses to disclose cost of new execution drug, pentobarbital

The Indiana Capital Chronicle had requested information from state officials about the drug expected to be used in at least one upcoming scheduled execution.

September 12, 2024

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Joseph Corcoran

Indiana Supreme Court sets Dec. 18 execution date for Joseph Corcoran

The Indiana Supreme Court set a Dec. 18 execution date for a Joseph Corcoran, who was convicted in a 1997 quadruple homicide.

August 30, 2024

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OK TO USE — The federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind., is shown Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020.

Trump says lifting federal executions ban a ‘day one’ priority

“Of course I would,” Trump says, responding to a question about whether or not he would immediately lift Attorney General Merrick Garland's moratorium on federal executions if he's reelected in the fall.

July 14, 2024

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 Fort Wayne’s Joseph Corcoran

Indiana death row inmate’s lawyers say mental illness should preclude him from execution

A motion filed with the Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday seeks to stymie the state’s recent request for an execution date.

June 29, 2024

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Holcomb dismisses concerns about executions using new drug

The proposed execution of Joseph Corcoran, convicted in four murders in 1998, would be the first state execution in Indiana in 15 years. The state plans to use a controversial drug to carry it out.

June 24, 2024

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OK TO USE — The federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind., is shown Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020.

Chemical company accused of supplying drugs for executions in Terre Haute ends pentobarbital sales

In a letter sent to two Connecticut lawmakers last month and later obtained by WFIU/WTIU News, chemical supplier Absolute Standards, Inc. says it's done making pentobarbital for the U.S. government.

June 3, 2024

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OK TO USE In this Dec. 10, 2019, file photo the guard tower flanks the sign at the entrance to the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind.

U.S. among top 5 using death penalty as global executions spike

Indiana hasn’t carried out an execution in more than a decade. But the state is home to federal death row, inside a special facility in Terre Haute where the U.S. carries out all federal executions.

April 19, 2024

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GOP gubernatorial hopefuls talk Indiana’s dormant death penalty

Indiana’s death penalty law exists in name only. What would Indiana’s GOP candidates for governor do differently?

February 27, 2024

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OK TO USE In this Dec. 10, 2019, file photo the guard tower flanks the sign at the entrance to the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind.

Biden backed off a pledge to abolish the federal death penalty. That's left an opening for Trump

Capital punishment may not be dominating the 2024 presidential race, but it could quickly seize the political spotlight after November.

January 15, 2024

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OK TO USE The entrance to the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., is seen Wednesday, July 15, 2020.

Second prisoner dies at Terre Haute federal prison

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons is reporting that a federal prisoner died in custody after a "perceived altercation" with another incarcerated individual. It was the Terre Haute facility's second deadly incident in as many months.

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January 14, 2024

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Terre Haute Federal Prison

Mass shooting at Buffalo supermarket now Justice Department’s first death penalty case under Garland

Just a few months after he took office, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a moratorium to halt federal executions. Now federal prosecutors say they will seek capital punishment for a white supremacist.

January 12, 2024

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Payton Gendron, center, listens as he is sentenced to life in prison without parole for domestic terrorism motivated by hate and each of the 10 counts of first-degree murder, in an Erie County court room, in Buffalo, N.Y., Feb 15, 2023

Prosecutors to seek death penalty for white supremacist who killed 10 at Buffalo supermarket

The decision marks the first time that President Joe Biden's Justice Department has authorized a new pursuit of the death penalty.

January 4, 2024

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Prison

Man found dead on federal death row planned suicide in final weeks

Friends of Nasih Khalil Ra’id say he was struggling to cope with conditions at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. The facility houses the U.S. prison bureau’s “Special Confinement Unit,” or federal death row.

December 4, 2023

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Exterior of United States Penitentiary

US officials: Man on federal death row found unresponsive, pronounced dead

The U.S. prison bureau reported the only Indiana resident on federal death row became unresponsive and died Friday. A spokesperson for the bureau declined to explain what caused Nasih Ra'id to become unresponsive.

October 19, 2023

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A wall of paintings created by Yuri Kadamov in The Juniper Gallery. The artist is an prisoner on federal death row in Terre Haute.

Bloomington gallery showcases death row artist

An exhibition of Yuri Kadamov’s paintings, titled “I Was a Prisoner, and You Came to Me,” will be on display at the Juniper Gallery through Nov. 3. 

September 1, 2023

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Pittsburgh synagogue gunman arrives at Terre Haute Penitentiary

The man convicted of killing 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 arrived at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute on August 25.

August 28, 2023

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Vice president mike pence speaks at a podium in 2019

Pence wants to expedite federal death penalty for mass shootings

“I'm calling for an expedited federal death penalty for anyone engaged in a mass shooting like took place in Jacksonville,” Pence tells CBS News’s Face The Nation.

July 13, 2023

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Democrats reintroduce bill to abolish federal death penalty

Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts filed the “Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act” in the U.S. House of Representatives. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is co-sponsoring the legislation.

May 3, 2023

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Terre Haute Federal Penitentiary

Officials move prisoner stuck on US death row for years

Prison officials have moved a former drug dealer convicted of killing a 16-year-old Texas girl off federal death row years after a judge deemed him intellectually disabled and vacated his death sentence.

May 1, 2023

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Federal death row ministers sue for contact during prayer, executions

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Terre Haute, asks a federal judge to allow clergy to have physical contact with the men for whom they serve as spiritual advisors.

April 16, 2023

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Terre Haute Penitentiary

Inmate stuck on U.S. death row despite vacated death sentence

While President Joe Biden’s Justice Department paused federal executions and reversed decisions to seek death sentences in some cases, it continues to seek them in others.

March 26, 2023

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Biden’s Justice Dept. keeps hard line in death row cases

Death penalty opponents expected Biden to act within weeks of taking office to fulfill his 2020 campaign promise to end capital punishment on the federal level. Instead, Biden has taken no steps toward fulfilling that promise.

March 10, 2023

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No verdict this week on death penalty in NY bike-path attack

Defense lawyers argued that the life of someone who aspired to be a martyr should be spared, and he should be forced to finish his life in a high-security prison where someday he may realize the harm he did was wrong.

March 8, 2023

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Terre Haute Penitentiary

Prosecutor seeks death for man in New York bike path attack

Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Houle told jurors that defendant Sayfullo Saipov, 35, “chose to violently smash and crush his victims, who were defenseless and included a child” with his Halloween day truck attack.

February 13, 2023

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Terre Haute Federal Prison

Death penalty phase of trial looms for NYC bike path killer

The lawyers said it seemed arbitrary for the U.S. Justice Department to “spare some defendants but single out Mr. Saipov, a Muslim immigrant, for the death penalty even though their culpability is arguably greater.”

January 26, 2023

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Terre Haute Federal Prison

NYC bike path killer convicted, could face the death penalty

An Islamic extremist who killed eight people with a speeding truck in a 2017 rampage on a popular New York City bike path was convicted Thursday of 28 federal crimes and could face the death penalty.

January 19, 2023

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Lethal Injection

Biden inaction, mixed signals on death penalty

President Joe Biden campaigned on a pledge to work toward abolishing federal capital punishment but has taken no major steps to that end. The Justice Department continues to press for the death penalty in certain cases.

January 19, 2023

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United States Penitentiary

U.S. won’t seek death penalty for alleged Texas Walmart gunman

The U.S. Department of Justice disclosed the decision not to pursue capital punishment against Patrick Crusius in a one-sentence notice filed Tuesday with the federal court in El Paso.

January 12, 2023

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Lawsuit challenges isolation conditions on federal death row

A lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court accuses the bureau of holding 38 men in isolated conditions that constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

July 11, 2022

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U.S. won’t seek death for man accused of killing Terre Haute detective

But Shane Meehan still faces a murder charge in the fatal shooting of detective and federal task force agent Greg Ferency outside an F.B.I. field office last summer.

March 4, 2022

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Terre Haute Penitentiary

High court reimposes Boston Marathon bomber’s death sentence

The justices, by a 6-3 vote Friday, agreed with the Biden administration’s arguments that a federal appeals court was wrong to throw out the sentence of death a jury imposed on Tsarnaev for his role in the bombing.

October 13, 2021

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Justices seem set to revive marathon bomber's death sentence

The Supreme Court sounded ready Wednesday to reinstate the death penalty for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

August 26, 2021

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Terre Haute Penitentiary

Court Upholds Death Sentence For Church Shooter Dylann Roof

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond rejected arguments that the young white man should have been ruled incompetent to stand trial in the shootings at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

December 6, 2020

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A Mother's Justice: The Trials of Lisa Montgomery

The Trump administration executed 52-year-old Lisa Montgomery in January 2021.

For additional coverage on the federal death penalty, click here. »