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Trump’s Cruel And Unusual Parting Gift: A Spree Of Federal Executions
When Yusuf Ahmed Nur, a professor at the University of Indiana, was asked to administer last rites to federal death row inmate Orlando Hall last month, he knew that there was a chance he would contract the coronavirus.
Prisons are known hot spots for the virus as they’re often crowded, have poor ventilation, and are filled with aging, medically vulnerable individuals. At the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, where federal executions are carried out, at least 188 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and three have died. And yet these executions — which bring together dozens of correctional staff and witnesses, many of whom have traveled from out of state — are still being carried out, despite the danger of spreading the virus.
“I knew it was going to be a big risk,” Nur told HuffPost. “But I felt like it was worth the sacrifice.”
On Nov. 19, Nur spent more than five hours at the prison complex awaiting Hall’s execution, housed in a small, windowless room with other witnesses. When it was time for Hall to be put to death, Nur entered the chamber to administer the last rites, reciting a prayer from the Quran. He stood close to the two executioners, both of whom were unmasked. Less than a week later, Nur tested positive for the coronavirus. He believes that he contracted the virus at the prison, as he was strictly isolating from others at the time.
The decision by the US government to move full steam ahead with federal executions in the face of a raging pandemic has attracted scant attention, despite the fact that it is dramatically out of step with state prison practices and opposed by a growing number of law enforcement officials and advocates for incarcerated individuals.
Since coronavirus lockdowns began in mid-March, executions by state governments have essentially come to a halt because of the health risks involved. Only two people on state death rows have been executed, Walter Barton in Missouri on May 19 and Billy...
