Since the enactment of the 1994 Federal Death Penalty Act, many indictments have charged crimes that would have allowed the U.S. Department of Justice to seek the death penalty. The penalty has been pursued infrequently and imposed rarely. Only three defendants have been put to death under the statute, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Six more await their fate on the “Special Confinement Unit” of the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
But federal death penalty trials teach us lessons about broader categories of criminal cases. “Capital Punishment Trials of Mafia Murderers” by Leonard Orland, who I proclaim as a friend, focuses on two fascinating trials in the Eastern District of New York: the 1992 trial of accused Bonnano crew chief Tommy Pitera before then-Eastern District Judge Reena Raggi and the 2011 trial of accused acting boss of the Bonnano crime family Vincent Basciano before Eastern District Judge Nicholas Garaufis. Each indictment charged the defendant with murder in the course of racketeering; each trial depended heavily on cooperator testimony and, in each case, the government sought to have the jury impose the death penalty.
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