Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4022 To abolish the death penalty under Federal law. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JULY 25, 2019 Mr. ESPAILLAT (for himself, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. MOORE, Ms. NORTON, Ms. OMAR, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. SERRANO, and Ms. TLAIB) intro- duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Ju- diciary, and in addition to the Committee on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider- ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To abolish the death penalty under Federal law. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Death Penalty 4 Abolition Act of 2019’’. 5 SEC. 2. REPEAL OF FEDERAL LAWS PROVIDING FOR THE 6 DEATH PENALTY. 7 (a) HOMICIDE-RELATED OFFENSES.— 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Aug 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4022.IH H4022 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 4022 IH (1) MURDER RELATED TO THE SMUGGLING OF 1 ALIENS.—Section 274(a)(1)(B)(iv) of the Immigra- 2 tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 3 1324(a)(1)(B)(iv)) is amended by striking ‘‘punished 4 by death or’’. 5 (2) DESTRUCTION OF AIRCRAFT, MOTOR VEHI- 6 CLES, OR RELATED FACILITIES RESULTING IN 7 DEATH.—Section 34 of title 18, United States Code, 8 is amended by striking ‘‘to the death penalty or’’. 9 (3) MURDER COMMITTED DURING A DRUG-RE- 10 LATED DRIVE-BY SHOOTING.—Section 36(b)(2)(A) 11 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by strik- 12 ing ‘‘death or’’. 13 (4) MURDER COMMITTED AT AN AIRPORT SERV- 14 ING INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION.—Section 15 37(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended, 16 in the matter following paragraph (2), by striking 17 ‘‘punished by death or’’. 18 (5) MURDER COMMITTED USING CHEMICAL 19 WEAPONS.—Section 229A(a)(2) of title 18, United 20 States Code, is amended— 21 (A) in the paragraph heading, by striking 22 ‘‘DEATH PENALTY’’ and inserting ‘‘CAUSING 23 DEATH’’; and 24 (B) by striking ‘‘punished by death or’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Aug 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4022.IH H4022 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 4022 IH (6) CIVIL RIGHTS OFFENSES RESULTING IN 1 DEATH.—Chapter 13 of title 18, United States 2 Code, is amended— 3 (A) in section 241, by striking ‘‘, or may 4 be sentenced to death’’; 5 (B) in section 242, by striking ‘‘, or may 6 be sentenced to death’’; 7 (C) in section 245(b), by striking ‘‘, or 8 may be sentenced to death’’; and 9 (D) in section 247(d)(1), by striking ‘‘, or 10 may be sentenced to death’’. 11 (7) MURDER OF A MEMBER OF CONGRESS, AN 12 IMPORTANT EXECUTIVE OFFICIAL, OR A SUPREME 13 COURT JUSTICE.—Section 351 of title 18, United 14 States Code, is amended— 15 (A) in subsection (b)— 16 (i) by striking ‘‘(1)’’; and 17 (ii) by striking ‘‘, or (2) by death’’ 18 and all that follows through the end of the 19 subsection and inserting a period; and 20 (B) in subsection (d)— 21 (i) by striking ‘‘(1)’’; and 22 (ii) by striking ‘‘, or (2) by death’’ 23 and all that follows through the end of the 24 subsection and inserting a period. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Aug 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4022.IH H4022 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 4022 IH (8) DEATH RESULTING FROM OFFENSES IN- 1 VOLVING TRANSPORTATION OF EXPLOSIVES, DE- 2 STRUCTION OF GOVERNMENT PROPERTY, OR DE- 3 STRUCTION OF PROPERTY RELATED TO FOREIGN OR 4 INTERSTATE COMMERCE.—Section 844 of title 18, 5 United States Code, is amended— 6 (A) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘or to 7 the death penalty’’; 8 (B) in subsection (f)(3), by striking ‘‘sub- 9 ject to the death penalty, or’’; 10 (C) in subsection (i), by striking ‘‘or to the 11 death penalty’’; and 12 (D) in subsection (n), by striking ‘‘(other 13 than the penalty of death)’’. 14 (9) MURDER COMMITTED BY USE OF A FIRE- 15 ARM OR ARMOR PIERCING AMMUNITION DURING 16 COMMISSION OF A CRIME OF VIOLENCE OR A DRUG 17 TRAFFICKING CRIME.—Section 924 of title 18, 18 United States Code, is amended— 19 (A) in subsection (c)(5)(B)(i), by striking 20 ‘‘punished by death or’’; and 21 (B) in subsection (j)(1), by striking ‘‘by 22 death or’’. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Aug 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4022.IH H4022 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 4022 IH (10) GENOCIDE.—Section 1091(b)(1) of title 1 18, United States Code, is amended by striking 2 ‘‘death or’’. 3 (11) FIRST DEGREE MURDER.—Section 4 1111(b) of title 18, United States Code, is amended 5 by striking ‘‘by death or’’. 6 (12) MURDER BY A FEDERAL PRISONER.—Sec- 7 tion 1118 of title 18, United States Code, is amend- 8 ed— 9 (A) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘by 10 death or’’; and 11 (B) in subsection (b), in the third undesig- 12 nated paragraph— 13 (i) by inserting ‘‘or’’ before ‘‘an inde- 14 terminate’’; and 15 (ii) by striking ‘‘, or an unexecuted 16 sentence of death’’. 17 (13) MURDER OF A STATE OR LOCAL LAW EN- 18 FORCEMENT OFFICIAL OR OTHER PERSON AIDING IN 19 A FEDERAL INVESTIGATION; MURDER OF A STATE 20 CORRECTIONAL OFFICER.—Section 1121 of title 18, 21 United States Code, is amended— 22 (A) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘by sen- 23 tence of death or’’; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Aug 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4022.IH H4022 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 4022 IH (B) in subsection (b)(1), by striking ‘‘or 1 death’’. 2 (14) MURDER DURING A KIDNAPPING.—Section 3 1201(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended 4 by striking ‘‘death or’’. 5 (15) MURDER DURING A HOSTAGE-TAKING.— 6 Section 1203(a) of title 18, United States Code, is 7 amended by striking ‘‘death or’’. 8 (16) MURDER WITH THE INTENT OF PRE- 9 VENTING TESTIMONY BY A WITNESS, VICTIM, OR IN- 10 FORMANT.—Section 1512(a)(2)(A) of title 18, 11 United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘the 12 death penalty or’’. 13 (17) MAILING OF INJURIOUS ARTICLES WITH 14 INTENT TO KILL OR RESULTING IN DEATH.—Section 15 1716(j)(3) of title 18, United States Code, is amend- 16 ed by striking ‘‘to the death penalty or’’. 17 (18) ASSASSINATION OR KIDNAPPING RESULT- 18 ING IN THE DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT OR VICE 19 PRESIDENT.—Section 1751 of title 18, United 20 States Code, is amended— 21 (A) in subsection (b)— 22 (i) by striking ‘‘(1)’’; and 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Aug 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4022.IH H4022 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HR 4022 IH (ii) by striking ‘‘, or (2) by death’’ 1 and all that follows through the end of the 2 subsection and inserting a period; and 3 (B) in subsection (d)— 4 (i) by striking ‘‘(1)’’; and 5 (ii) by striking ‘‘, or (2) by death’’ 6 and all that follows through the end of the 7 subsection and inserting a period. 8 (19) MURDER FOR HIRE.—Section 1958(a) of 9 title 18, United States Code, is amended by striking 10 ‘‘death or’’. 11 (20) MURDER INVOLVED IN A RACKETEERING 12 OFFENSE.—Section 1959(a)(1) of title 18, United 13 States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘death or’’. 14 (21) WILLFUL WRECKING OF A TRAIN RESULT- 15 ING IN DEATH.—Section 1992 of title 18, United 16 States Code, is amended— 17 (A) in subsection (a), in the matter fol- 18 lowing paragraph (10), by striking ‘‘or subject 19 to death,’’; and 20 (B) in subsection (b), in the matter fol- 21 lowing paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘, and if the 22 offense resulted in the death of any person, the 23 person may be sentenced to death’’. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Aug 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4022.IH H4022 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •HR 4022 IH (22) BANK ROBBERY-RELATED MURDER OR 1 KIDNAPPING.—Section 2113(e) of title 18, United 2 States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘death or’’. 3 (23) MURDER RELATED TO A CARJACKING.— 4 Section 2119(3) of title 18, United States Code, is 5 amended by striking ‘‘, or sentenced to death’’. 6 (24) MURDER RELATED TO AGGRAVATED 7 CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE.—Section 2241(c) of title 18, 8 United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘unless 9 the death penalty is imposed,’’. 10 (25) MURDER RELATED TO SEXUAL ABUSE.— 11 Section 2245 of title 18, United States Code, is 12 amended by striking ‘‘punished by death or’’. 13 (26) MURDER RELATED TO SEXUAL EXPLOI- 14 TATION OF CHILDREN.—Section 2251(e) of title 18, 15 United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘pun- 16 ished by death or’’. 17 (27) MURDER COMMITTED DURING AN OF- 18 FENSE AGAINST MARITIME NAVIGATION.—Section 19 2280(a)(1) of title 18, United States Code, is 20 amended by striking ‘‘punished by death or’’. 21 (28) MURDER COMMITTED DURING AN OF- 22 FENSE AGAINST A MARITIME FIXED PLATFORM.— 23 Section 2281(a)(1) of title 18, United States Code, 24 is amended by striking ‘‘punished by death or’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Aug 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4022.IH H4022 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 9 •HR 4022 IH (29) MURDER USING DEVICES OR DANGEROUS 1 SUBSTANCES IN WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES.— 2 Section 2282A of title 18, United States Code, is 3 amended— 4 (A) by striking subsection (b); and 5 (B) by redesignating subsections (c) and 6 (d) as subsections (b) and (c), respectively. 7 (30) MURDER INVOLVING THE TRANSPOR- 8 TATION OF EXPLOSIVE, BIOLOGICAL, CHEMICAL, OR 9 RADIOACTIVE OR NUCLEAR MATERIALS.—Section 10 2283 of title 18, United States Code, is amended— 11 (A) by striking subsection (b); and 12 (B) by redesignating subsection (c) as sub- 13 section (b). 14 (31) MURDER INVOLVING THE DESTRUCTION 15 OF VESSEL OR MARITIME FACILITY.—Section 16 2291(d) of title 18, United States Code, is amended 17 by striking ‘‘to the death penalty or’’. 18 (32) MURDER OF A UNITED STATES NATIONAL 19 IN ANOTHER COUNTRY.—Section 2332(a)(1) of title 20 18, United States Code, is amended by striking 21 ‘‘death or’’. 22 (33) MURDER BY THE USE OF A WEAPON OF 23 MASS DESTRUCTION.—Section 2332a of title 18, 24 United States Code, is amended— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Aug 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4022.IH H4022 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 10 •HR 4022 IH (A) in subsection (a), in the matter fol- 1 lowing paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘, and if 2 death results shall be punished by death’’ and 3 all that follows through the end of the sub- 4 section and inserting a period; and 5 (B) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘, and if 6 death results shall be punished by death’’ and 7 all that follows through the end of the sub- 8 section and inserting a period. 9 (34) MURDER BY ACT OF TERRORISM TRAN- 10 SCENDING NATIONAL BOUNDARIES.—Section 11 2332b(c)(1)(A) of title 18, United States Code, is 12 amended by striking ‘‘by death, or’’. 13 (35) MURDER INVOLVING TORTURE.—Section 14 2340A(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amend- 15 ed by striking ‘‘punished by death or’’. 16 (36) MURDER INVOLVING A WAR CRIME.—Sec- 17 tion 2441(a) of title 18, United States Code, is 18 amended by striking ‘‘, and if death results to the 19 victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death’’. 20 (37) MURDER RELATED TO A CONTINUING 21 CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE OR RELATED MURDER OF A 22 FEDERAL, STATE, OR LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT 23 OFFICER.—Section 408(e) of the Controlled Sub- 24 stances Act (21 U.S.C. 848(e)) is amended— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Aug 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4022.IH H4022 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 11 •HR 4022 IH (A) in the subsection heading, by striking 1 ‘‘DEATH PENALTY’’ and inserting ‘‘INTEN- 2 TIONAL KILLING’’; and 3 (B) in paragraph (1)— 4 (i) subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘, or 5 may be sentenced to death’’; and 6 (ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 7 ‘‘, or may be sentenced to death’’. 8 (38) DEATH RESULTING FROM AIRCRAFT HI- 9 JACKING.—Section 46502 of title 49, United States 10 Code, is amended— 11 (A) in subsection (a)(2)(B), by striking 12 ‘‘put to death or’’; and 13 (B) in subsection (b)(1)(B), by striking 14 ‘‘put to death or’’. 15 (b) NON-HOMICIDE RELATED OFFENSES.— 16 (1) ESPIONAGE.—Section 794(a) of title 18, 17 United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘pun- 18 ished by death or’’ and all that follows before the pe- 19 riod and inserting ‘‘imprisoned for any term of years 20 or for life’’. 21 (2) TREASON.—Section 2381 of title 18, United 22 States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘shall suffer 23 death, or’’. 24 (c) TITLE 10.— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Aug 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4022.IH H4022 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 12 •HR 4022 IH (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 856 of title 10 is 1 amended by inserting before the period at the end 2 the following: ‘‘, except that the punishment may not 3 include death’’. 4 (2) OFFENSES.— 5 (A) CONSPIRACY.—Section 881(b) of title 6 10, United States Code (article 81(b) of the 7 Uniform Code of Military Justice), is amended 8 by striking ‘‘, if death results’’ and all that fol- 9 lows through the end and inserting ‘‘as a court- 10 martial or military commission may direct.’’. 11 (B) DESERTION.—Section 885(c) of title 12 10, United States Code (article 85(c)), is 13 amended by striking ‘‘, if the offense is com- 14 mitted in time of war’’ and all that follows 15 through the end and inserting ‘‘as a court-mar- 16 tial may direct.’’. 17 (C) ASSAULTING OR WILLFULLY DIS- 18 OBEYING SUPERIOR COMMISSIONED OFFICER.— 19 Section 890 of title 10, United States Code (ar- 20 ticle 90), is amended by striking ‘‘, if the of- 21 fense is committed in time of war’’ and all that 22 follows and inserting ‘‘as a court-martial may 23 direct.’’. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Aug 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4022.IH H4022 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 13 •HR 4022 IH (D) MUTINY OR SEDITION.—Section 1 894(b) of title 10, United States Code (article 2 94(b)), is amended by striking ‘‘by death or 3 such other punishment’’. 4 (E) MISBEHAVIOR BEFORE THE ENEMY.— 5 Section 899 of title 10, United States Code (ar- 6 ticle 99), is amended by striking ‘‘by death or 7 such other punishment’’. 8 (F) SUBORDINATE COMPELLING SUR- 9 RENDER.—Section 900 of title 10, United 10 States Code (article 100), is amended by strik- 11 ing ‘‘by death or such other punishment’’. 12 (G) IMPROPER USE OF COUNTERSIGN.— 13 Section 901 of title 10, United States Code (ar- 14 ticle 101), is amended by striking ‘‘by death or 15 such other punishment’’. 16 (H) FORCING A SAFEGUARD.—Section 902 17 of title 10, United States Code (article [Text truncated for display. 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