OKLAHOMA CITY — Federal prosecutors introduced Wednesday they’ll search the demise penalty for an inmate accused of strangling his cellmate on the Federal Switch Heart in Oklahoma Metropolis.
U.S. Lawyer Robert Troester for the Western District of Oklahoma filed a discover of intent to hunt the demise penalty in opposition to 27-year-old Jasper Reed.
A federal grand jury in Oklahoma Metropolis on Tuesday returned a three-count indictment charging Reed with first-degree homicide, tried homicide and assault leading to critical bodily damage.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons’ federal switch middle, which homes about 1,400 female and male inmates, is a primary hub for federal prisoners who’re being transferred to jail services throughout the nation.
Prosecutors allege Reed, who was serving time in federal jail for a firearms offense out of New Mexico, attacked and severely injured his first cellmate, referred to in court docket paperwork as T.R., on April 27, 2024.
A corrections officer noticed Reed mendacity on high of the person together with his palms round his neck and blood on each males earlier than he and different officers had been in a position to separate the 2, based on an affidavit signed by a federal agent.
The opposite inmate suffered a number of damaged bones in his face and neck, however survived.
A bit greater than per week later, Reed was housed with one other inmate, known as R.P., who was discovered useless inside his cell on Might 8, 2024, the affidavit states. An post-mortem decided the reason for demise of that inmate to be murder by guide strangulation.
Reed’s attorneys within the Federal Public Defender’s workplace declined to touch upon the case.
Simply hours after President Donald Trump returned to the White Home, he signed a sweeping government order on the demise penalty that directs the U.S. lawyer normal to “take all necessary and lawful action” to make sure states have sufficient deadly injection medication to hold out executions.
Trump’s order compels the Justice Division to not solely search the demise penalty in acceptable federal circumstances but in addition to assist protect capital punishment in states which have struggled to take care of sufficient provides of deadly injection medication.
Earlier than Trump’s election, federal executions had been on maintain since a moratorium was imposed by former Lawyer Basic Merrick Garland in 2021.
Solely three defendants remained on federal demise row after Democratic President Joe Biden transformed 37 of their sentences to life in jail.
