"US Senators Dick Durbin, Patrick Leahy and Cory Booker, all members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today introduced legislation to immediately ban the use of the death penalty by the federal government", the release said on Wednesday.
Last week, US Attorney General William Barr said the Trump administration ordered the resumption of capital punishment for federal prisoners on death row after a nearly two-decade lapse. The death penalty is currently outlawed in 21 US states.
Barr has ordered the Federal Bureau of Prisons to carry out five executions in less than two months starting in December, the release noted.
The legislation is cosponsored by Senators Kamala Harris, Mazie Hirono, Tim Kaine, Amy Klobuchar, Brian Schatz, and Bernie Sanders, the release added.
