Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón issued a statement Tuesday on proposed federal legislation on ending the death penalty.

The announcement comes as three federal executions were scheduled to take place during the week of Jan.11 through Jan. 15. One death-row prisoner has since received an official stay of execution from a federal judge. The other two have been scheduled for Jan. 14 and Jan. 15, 2021. They would be the last federal executions to take place while President Donald Trump is in office.

“President Trump’s attempt to execute three people during his last week in office is dysfunctional, immoral and unjust,” District Attorney Gascón said. “Last month when I took office, I announced my office would no longer seek the death penalty in a county that currently has 215 people on California’s death row.”

On Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020 Gascón announced that in part of the effort to reduce the severity of sentencing in Special Directive 20-11, his office will not seek the death penalty in any new cases.

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As of mid-December, Los Angeles County had the nation’s most populous county death row, with 225 death-row prisoners. By itself, the county accounted for more than 31% of California’s death row and just under 9% of the nation’s death-row total, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).

“State or federal sanctioned killings do not deter crime and have historically been racially biased,” Gascón continued.

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, D-MA, and Senator Richard Durbin, D-IL brought forward the proposed federal legislation to resentence more than 50 people sitting on its death row, a motion Gascón “wholeheartedly supports”,

The first federal execution in 17 years was carried out in July 2020 under an order from then-Attorney General William Barr, since that time a total of 10 people have been executed by the federal government.

“Together, we can end this inhumane and misguided form of punishment and continue to make essential reforms to our criminal justice system that will enhance safety and justice,” Gascón concluded.

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