Pence wants to expedite federal death penalty for mass shootings

Former Vice President Mike Pence wants to speed up federal executions for people convicted of carrying out mass shootings.

Pence also wants other steps including providing law enforcement with “what they need” and more federal funding for school guards.

Read more: Democrats reintroduce bill to abolish federal death penalty

“But at the end of the day, I also believe that justice delayed is justice denied. And I'm calling for an expedited federal death penalty for anyone engaged in a mass shooting like took place in Jacksonville,” Pence told CBS News’s Face The Nation on Sunday.

The GOP presidential hopeful was responding to a question about an apparently racist attack at a dollar store in Jacksonville, Florida over the weekend. Police say a White man shot and killed three Black people before turning the gun on himself.



“We’ve got to send a message to anyone that has evil in their hearts, that there is no chance for them to spend the rest of their life behind bars. That they're going to meet their fate in months, not years,” Pence said. “And I believe expedited due process of federal death penalty for those that engage in the kind of mass shootings that claimed lives in Jacksonville yesterday is an idea whose time has come.”

All federal executions in the United States are carried out at a facility in Terre Haute. The Trump administration killed 13 people there in 2020 and 2021.

Read more: DOJ’s review of federal execution protocol ‘ongoing’

President Joe Biden campaigned on ending the federal death penalty, and his administration put executions on hold after Biden took office. But the justice department has continued to pursue and defend federal death sentences in the meantime.

Democratic lawmakers unveiled legislation to abolish the federal death penalty in July.