General Discussion

Dylann Roof — Roof was sentenced to death by a jury on January 10, 2017 for the race-related murders of nine parishioners at an historic Black church in Charleston, South Carolina. The court formally imposed the death penalty on January 11.

Christopher Cramer and Ricky Fackrell — Cramer and Fackrell received jury verdicts of death on June 13, 2018, for the murder of a White prisoner in a federal penitentiary in Texas.

Brandon Council — Council was sentenced to death on October 3, 2019 by a jury in South Carolina for killing a teller and bank manager during the 2017 robbery of a CresCom bank.

Robert Bowers — Bowers was found guilty of all 63 federal charges related to his 2018 attack on the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue shooting that resulted in 11 deaths and many more injuries. Attorneys for Mr. Bowers told jurors about his history of mental illness and brain impairment from childhood, including several suicide attempts and commitments to psychiatric facilities before the age of 13, and argued that he was too delusional to be eligible for the death penalty. On August 1, 2023 the jury unanimously recommended a death sentence, marking the first death sentence obtained under the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice.