Re: “Trump administration’s rule change could allow gas, firing squads for U.S. executions” (Nov. 27):

Just in time for a joyous Yuletide, the William Barr/Donald Trump “Justice” Department is implementing a policy that will expedite the state-sponsored murder of federal death row inmates by all manner of once-outlawed barbaric tortures – not confined to the use of lethal gas injection, the norm since 1993 in states (primarily former Confederate states) that have not evolved away from the death penalty.

In a rush to execute as many – mostly souls of color – as possible before the administration of the anti-capital punishment Joe Biden takes over in 50-odd days – the firing squad, electric chair and all manner of everything short of the guillotine, is coming out of mothballs to ensure that as many inmates as possible will not be spared.

Barr’s Justice Department has, in the last few months, executed more than the federal total of the last 30 years and has a lineup planned for many more despite the COVID-19 dangers associated with these executions and that no lame-duck president has executed anyone in this country since Grover Cleveland, himself a former sheriff, hangman and sadist, apparently. But then again, we’re talking about a Justice Department that intervenes to protect the president from depositions in a defamation lawsuit linked to rape charges from decades before he took office and skewed the Mueller report to, I believe, protect him from indictment.

How many more days until Jan. 20? Please come fast.

Jon St.Laurent
North Bridgton