{ "id": "R42095", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "R", "number": "R42095", "active": true, "source": "CRSReports.Congress.gov, EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source_dir": "crsreports.congress.gov", "title": "Federal Capital Offenses: An Overview of Substantive and Procedural Law", "retrieved": "2023-08-07T04:03:16.791165", "id": "R42095_12_2023-07-05", "formats": [ { "filename": "files/2023-07-05_R42095_8c99d2f66ca0a2e7bfd67be37a2dec83ab60aa83.pdf", "format": "PDF", "url": "https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R42095/12", "sha1": "8c99d2f66ca0a2e7bfd67be37a2dec83ab60aa83" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/2023-07-05_R42095_8c99d2f66ca0a2e7bfd67be37a2dec83ab60aa83.html" } ], "date": "2023-07-05", "summary": null, "source": "CRSReports.Congress.gov", "typeId": "R", "active": true, "sourceLink": "https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/details?prodcode=R42095", "type": "CRS Report" }, { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 450086, "date": "2016-02-25", "retrieved": "2016-04-06T17:02:13.555215", "title": "Federal Capital Offenses: An Overview of Substantive and Procedural Law", "summary": "Murder is a federal capital offense if committed in any of more than 50 jurisdictional settings. The Constitution defines the circumstances under which the death penalty may be considered a sentencing option. With an eye to those constitutional boundaries, the Federal Death Penalty Act and related statutory provisions govern the procedures under which the death penalty may be imposed.\nSome defendants are ineligible for the death penalty regardless of the crimes with which they are accused. Children and those incompetent to stand trial may not face the death penalty; pregnant women and the mentally retarded may not be executed. There is no statute of limitations for murder, and the time constraints imposed by the due process and speedy trial clauses of the Constitution are rarely an impediment to prosecution.\nThe decision to seek or forgo the death penalty in a federal capital case must be weighed by the Justice Department\u2019s Capital Review Committee and approved by the Attorney General.\nDefendants convicted of murder are death-eligible only if they are found at a separate sentencing hearing to have acted with life-threatening intent. Among those who have, capital punishment may be imposed only if the sentencing jury unanimously concludes that the aggravating circumstances that surround the murder and the defendant outweigh the mitigating circumstances to an extent that justifies execution.\nThe Federal Death Penalty Act provides several specific aggravating factors, such as murder of a law enforcement officer or multiple murders committed at the same time. It also permits consideration of any relevant \u201cnon-statutory aggravating factors.\u201d Impact on the victim\u2019s family and future dangerousness of the defendant are perhaps the most commonly invoked non-statutory aggravating factors. The jury must agree on the existence of at least one of the statutory aggravating factors if the defendant is to be sentenced to death.\nThe Federal Death Penalty Act permits consideration of any relevant mitigating factor, and identifies a few, such as the absence of prior criminal record or the fact that a co-defendant, equally or more culpable, has escaped with a lesser sentence. \nThe Federal Death Penalty Act recognizes other capital offenses that do not necessarily involve murder: treason, espionage, large-scale drug trafficking, and attempted murder to obstruct a drug kingpin investigation. The constitutional standing of these is less certain or at least different.\nThis report is available in an abridged form as CRS Report R42096, Federal Capital Offenses: An Abridged Overview of Substantive and Procedural Law, without the footnotes, attributions of authority, or quotations found here.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R42095", "sha1": "83e3158df3799edc8cabde3e4334ae8ffc8acf3e", "filename": "files/20160225_R42095_83e3158df3799edc8cabde3e4334ae8ffc8acf3e.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R42095", "sha1": "d57af985c9c0afb049d66787fc2ae22c5912f591", "filename": "files/20160225_R42095_d57af985c9c0afb049d66787fc2ae22c5912f591.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc821144/", "id": "R42095_2014Nov18", "date": "2014-11-18", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Federal Capital Offenses: An Overview of Substantive and Procedural Law", "summary": "Murder, committed under any of more than 50 jurisdictional circumstances, is a federal capital\r\noffense. So are treason, espionage, and certain drug kingpin offenses. The Federal Death Penalty\r\nAct and related provisions establish the procedure that must be followed before a defendant\r\nconvicted of a federal capital offense may be executed. This report is an overview of the law in the area.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20141118_R42095_e4282f004450a4cd7c83177df58c2f6622c5e7b4.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20141118_R42095_e4282f004450a4cd7c83177df58c2f6622c5e7b4.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Criminal justice", "name": "Criminal justice" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Capital punishment", "name": "Capital punishment" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Law", "name": "Law" } ] } ], "topics": [ "American Law", "Intelligence and National Security" ] }