Purposes of the Capital Case Review Process

The review of cases under this Chapter culminates in a decision to seek, or not to seek, the death penalty against an individual defendant. Each such decision must be based upon the facts and law applicable to the case and be set within a framework of consistent and even-handed national application of Federal capital sentencing laws. Fairness requires all reviewers to evaluate each case on its own merits and on its own terms. As with all other actions taken in Federal prosecutions, arbitrary or impermissible factors—such as racial, ethnic, or religious bias—will not inform any stage of the decision-making process. The overriding goal of the review process is to allow proper individualized consideration of the appropriate factors relevant to each case.

National consistency requires treating similar cases similarly; the location of the crime is not a material difference for this purpose. Reviewers must take care to contextualize a given case within national norms and historical practice. For this reason, the multi-tier process used to make determinations in this Chapter is designed to provide reviewers with access to the national decision-making context and, thereby, to reduce disparities across districts.

[Updated June 2026]