Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered a moratorium on federal executions pending a review of policies during the Trump administration.

Garland's move is a step toward President Joe Biden's campaign promise to eliminate the federal death penalty.

"The Department of Justice must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States, but is also treated fairly and humanely," Garland wrote in a July 1  memo. 

Garland called for a review of policies implemented during the Trump administration that would examine:

• "the risk of pain and suffering associated with the use of pentobarbital," a drug used in executions;

• regulations that expanded the permissible methods of execution beyond lethal injection, and authorized the use of state facilities and personnel in federal executions;

• changes made in the final weeks of the Trump administration to expedite the execution of capital sentences.

"No federal executions will be scheduled during the pendency of these reviews," Garland wrote.

Capital punishment is currently authorized by 27 states, the federal government and the U.S. military, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Trump administration resumed federal executions in 2020 after 17 years.

There are 45 men on federal death row, according to the Federal Capital Habeas Project.

Project director Ruth Friedman said in a statement that the moratorium is a step in the right direction, but not enough.

"We know the federal death penalty system is marred by racial bias, arbitrariness, over-reaching, and grievous mistakes by defense lawyers and prosecutors that make it broken beyond repair," Friedman said. "President Biden, with the support of the Department of Justice, can and should commute all federal death sentences to address these problems. Otherwise, this moratorium will just leave these intractable issues unremedied and pave the way for another unconscionable bloodbath like we saw last year."

Biden spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement that the president is pleased with Garland's memo.

"As the president has made clear, he has significant concerns about the death penalty and how it is implemented, and he believes the Department of Justice should return to its prior practice of not carrying out executions," Bates said.

In June, we rated Biden's promise to eliminate the federal death penalty Stalled after the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to reverse a decision by a court to vacate the death penalty in the Boston Marathon bomber case. 

Garland's memo imposing a moratorium moves the administration in the direction of Biden's campaign promise again. We rate this promise In the Works.

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