Trump administration announces federal grand jury murder indictment for Colorado prisoner News
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Trump administration announces federal grand jury murder indictment for Colorado prisoner

The US Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announced on Thursday that a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging prisoner Ishmael Petty with first-degree murder and murder by a federal prisoner, both of which are punishable by death.

The office discussed Petty’s criminal history in a press release, stating: “Petty has been in federal custody since a 1998 conviction for bank robbery. In 2002, Petty was sentenced to life in prison for murdering an inmate at another federal prison. In 2015, Petty was sentenced to 60 years in prison for an assault on two federal officers.”

Petty allegedly murdered his cellmate, who was identified in the indictment as “L.H.” The office stated that the incident occurred on September 19, 2020, in the US Penitentiary-Florence, Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado.

Assistant US Attorney Brian Dunn filed a notice of intent seeking the death penalty against Petty. This notice comes nine days after US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced her goal to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione for the alleged assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The requested death penalty for Petty is the latest of President Donald Trump’s aggressive reversal of former President Joe Biden’s anti-death penalty practices. On December 23, 2024, Biden commuted the sentences for 37 of the 40 federal death row inmates to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Over three years prior, the Biden administration paused federal executions while it was reviewing execution protocols.

Trump issued an executive order on his first day of office requiring the attorney general to pursue the death penalty for crimes “of a severity demanding its use.” The order also requires the attorney general to pursue the death penalty regardless of the circumstances for “(i) The murder of a law-enforcement officer; or (ii) A capital crime committed by an alien illegally present in this country.” He further ordered “a sufficient supply of drugs needed to carry out lethal injection” for states that allow the death penalty.

According to AP News, “Trump’s administration carried out 13 federal executions during his first term, more than under any president in modern history.” The Colorado Gazette also reported: “There are currently 14 active death penalty warrants throughout the country in Ohio, Tennessee, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana and Florida.”

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