Criminal punishment

This undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows John Gardner. Gardner a Texas inmate with a history of violence against women faces execution for fatally shooting his wife, who had repeatedly told friends and family she would never get out of her marriage alive. Gardner is set to receive a lethal injection Wednesday Jan. 15, 2019 for the January 2005 slaying of Tammy Gardner.(Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP)

FILE - This undated Pennsylvania Department of Transportation photo shows Robert Bowers. Federal prosecutors announced in August they would seek the death penalty for Bowers who is charged with killing 11 people inside the tree of Life synagogue. Bowers had offered to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation via AP, File)

FILE - This 2017 file photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction shows Lee Hall, formerly known as Leroy Hall Jr. Hall, a death row inmate. Hall is scheduled to be electrocuted Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019. Hall walked onto death row nearly three decades ago with his sight, but attorneys for the 53-year-old prisoner say he’s since become functionally blind due to improperly treated glaucoma. (Tennessee Department of Correction via AP)

FILE - This 2017 file photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction shows Lee Hall, formerly known as Leroy Hall Jr. Hall, a death row inmate. Hall is scheduled to be electrocuted Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019. Hall walked onto death row nearly three decades ago with his sight, but attorneys for the 53-year-old prisoner say he’s since become functionally blind due to improperly treated glaucoma. (Tennessee Department of Correction via AP)

FILE - In this Nov. 22, 2019, file photo, Attorney General William Barr speaks with members of the press before participating in a law enforcement roundtable at the Flathead County Sheriff's Posse in Evergreen, Mont. An appeals court is upholding a ruling that blocked the federal government’s plan to restart federal executions next week after a 16-year hiatus. The order was handed down Monday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The Justice Department asked the court to vacate or stay an injunction put in place by a district court judge. Attorney General William Barr has said he would take the case to the Supreme Court if necessary. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Attorney General William Barr greets members of the Cleveland FBI field office's SWAT team before boarding an aircraft at Burke Lakefront Airport, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019, in Cleveland. Barr participated in a roundtable discussion with members of local, state and federal law enforcement, and is en route to Montana, where he is scheduled Friday to address missing and murdered indigenous persons. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2019 file photo, a view of the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse in Washington. A federal judge in the District of Columbia has temporarily halted the first federal execution in 16 years as a lawsuit on how the government intends to carry it out continues. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2019 file photo, April Alley, front, daughter of Sedley Alley, hugs a member of her legal counsel in a Memphis, Tenn., courtroom. Since the early 1990s, 22 death row inmates around the U.S. have been exonerated through DNA evidence. Now the Innocence Project hopes to exonerate Sedley Alley, a Tennessee man who has already been executed. Alley was put to death by lethal injection in 2006 for the murder two decades earlier of Marine Lance Cpl. Suzanne Collins. Alley said his confession was coerced. A judge is expected to rule Monday, Nov. 18 on whether DNA evidence can be tested. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian via AP, File)