Govwatch

Introduced

In Committee

3

Passed One Chamber

4

Passed Both

5

Signed into Law

Sponsor

Richard J. Durbin

Democrat · IL · Senator

Votes with party: 80.3% (834 recorded votes)

Full profile: /officials/D000563

Source: Congress.gov · FEC

Cosponsors (17)

Members who have signed on to support this bill since introduction. Source: Congress.gov.

Latest Action

The most recent step in the bill's legislative path. Committee Activity below shows referrals and reports; the full action-by-action history including floor proceedings lives at Congress.gov →

Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S2417-2418; text: CR S2418)

2026-05-20

Source: Congress.gov

Committee Activity

Currently in

Senate Committee on the JudiciaryReferred To · 2026-05-20

Plain-English Summary

The federal government would no longer be allowed to impose the death penalty as punishment for any federal crime. This would affect how the most serious federal cases are prosecuted and would eliminate capital punishment from the federal criminal justice system, though it would not change state death penalty laws.

AI-assisted summary generated from the official bill metadata (title, subjects, actions) sourced from Congress.gov. Cached and reviewed. Always verify against the official text linked below.

Subjects

Crime and Law Enforcement

Full Bill Text

Verbatim text published on Congress.gov via GovInfo. Use Cmd+F / Ctrl+F to search within this excerpt.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [S. 4608 Introduced in Senate (IS)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 4608 To prohibit the imposition of the death penalty for any violation of Federal law, and for other purposes. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES May 20, 2026 Mr. Durbin (for himself, Mr. Padilla, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Booker, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Warnock, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Ossoff, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Welch, Mr. Schiff, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Markey, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Coons, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Merkley, and Ms. Warren) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To prohibit the imposition of the death penalty for any violation of Federal law, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act''. SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON IMPOSITION OF DEATH SENTENCE. (a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person may be sentenced to death or put to death on or after the date of enactment of this Act for any violation of Federal law. (b) Persons Sentenced Before Date of Enactment.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any person sentenced to death before the date of enactment of this Act for any violation of Federal law shall be resentenced. <all>

Open clean-text view Read on Congress.gov →

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