Attorney General Merrick Garland Suspends Death Penalty
Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at a news conference at the Department of Justice on June 25, 2021 in Washington, DC. Justice Garland held the news conference to announce that the Department of Justice would be suing the state of Georgia over it’s new election laws. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday announced that he was imposing a moratorium on the death penalty while ordering the Justice Department to review its policies and procedures.

The administration of former president Donald Trump has carried a historic use of federal executions, with 13 people receiving capital punishment in six months, CBS News reported.

Merrick Garland said the Justice Department must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the laws of the country but is also treated fairly and humanely.

The Attorney General noted that the department would review the protocols put in place by former Attorney General William Barr.

Court fights brought federal executions to a stop for around two decades. The said legal battles involve the traditional three-drug memo for executing lethal injections and a shortage of one of those drugs.

William Barr directed federal prison officials to start carrying lethal injections using a single dose drug in 2019, NBC News reported.

Merrick Garland's memo did not address whether the federal government would continue to seek capital punishment in criminal cases.

Death Penalty Implementation

William Barr at the time said his justice department is simply upholding existing laws. However, critics noted that the move, imposed just weeks before President Joe Biden takes office, is concerning.

Five people have been executed in days leading to Joe Biden's January 20 inauguration, which breaks the 130-year-old precedent of pausing executions during a presidential transition, BBC News reported.

Ngozi Ndulue, director of research at the non-partisan Death Penalty Information Center, said that what Barr imposed was really outside the norm, in a "pretty extreme way."

Before Trump took office, only three federal executions had taken place. All carried out under former Republican President George W. Bush.

Popular opinion has changed when it comes to the implementation of capital punishment, with 60 percent of Americans supported life in prison over the death penalty for the first time since the survey began more than 30 years ago. The Gallup poll was surveyed in November 2019.

Ndulue said that public support for the death penalty is at a decades-long low.

William Barr announced in July 2019 the scheduled executions of five death row prisoners, despite public opinion and instilled practices. He said the selected inmates had been convicted of murdering or raping children and the elderly.

Lisa Cylar Barrett, director of policy at the NCAAP Legal Defense Fund at the time, said their organization feels that capital punishment is an unconstitutionally arbitrary punishment. Barrett added that it should have been abolished decades ago.

Meanwhile, research suggested that the death penalty has been practiced differently based on race. Ndulue said the victim's race is a serious factor in determining whether or not you will have the death penalty.

Vice President Kamala Harris has been a constant critic of the practice. She declined to seek the death penalty in the murder of a police officer killed in the line of duty, despite pressure from her party.

WATCH: Senate Votes To Confirm Merrick Garland As Attorney General | Katy Tur - From MSNBC