Since taking over the U.S. Department of Justice earlier this year Attorney General Pam Bondi has taken the unprecedented step of seeking the death penalty in six cases involving nine defendants where the DOJ under the Biden Administration had already decided not to pursue capital punishment.
Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, said it was “remarkable” that Bondi was overturning decisions that were “carefully weighed and decided” under former Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“It makes clear, if there was any remaining doubt, that the DOJ’s actions are being driven by politics, not the rule of law,” she said.
Five of the reversals have been rejected by district judges, with two pending judge’s decisions on defense motions to strike the notices to seek the death penalty. The government is appealing the rejections in two of the cases.
These are the cases as of Oct. 1, 2025:
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
In January, prosecutors announced they were not seeking the death penalty against Gustavo Alfonso Castano Restrepo of Miami, charged with kidnapping resulting in the 2016 deaths of his girlfriend and their daughter.
In August, Bondi reversed that decision. Last month, defense lawyers challenged Bondi’s reversal, arguing it was untimely and that the only changed circumstances were political. Prosecutors contend that the original no-seek decision was revocable and that the reversal was timely. U.S. District Judge Roy Altman has scheduled an Oct. 15 hearing on the issue.
MARYLAND
Three MS-13 gang members — Wilson Arturo Constanza-Galdomez, Edis Omar Valenzuela-Rodriguez and Jonathan Pesquera-Puerto — were awaiting a September 2025 trial in the 2020 murders of two teenage girls and three other attempted murders in the Baltimore suburbs when the DOJ decided in May to pursue the death penalty. Prosecutors last year had told the judge and defense lawyers the three men would not face capital punishment.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher ruled the following month that changing course would prejudice the defendants’ due process rights.
“The question before this Court is whether the government’s belated notices of its intent to seek the death penalty comport with Defendants’ constitutional and statutory rights. The answer is emphatically no,” she ruled. “This Court will not “give its imprimatur to the creation of an entirely new regime for the administration of the death penalty” that ignores “longstanding norms and practices.” The government has proceeded hastily in this case, and in doing so has leapfrogged important constitutional and statutory rights. That is unacceptable. The death notices in this case are untimely and incurably defective.”
The trial proceeded this month and all three men were convicted. They face life in prison when sentenced.
NEVADA
Twelve days before he was scheduled to go on trial in the 2020 drug-related deaths of a California couple in Nevada, Cory Spurlock learned in April that prosecutors now wanted him to face the death penalty.
The Department of Justice had announced in July 2024 that it was not seeking the death penalty and his lawyers began preparing for a non-capital punishment trial.
The government’s about-face was rejected by U.S. District Judge Miranda Du.
“The government falls far short of justifying its attempt to seek death on the eve of trial, years into this case,” Du wrote in a May decision. “The government had ample opportunity to exercise discretion in determining whether to pursue capital punishment. It formally notified the Court and Defendant it would not so do in advance of a notice deadline to which it consented. The government may not now unilaterally derail the course of proceedings with regard to this matter of clear procedural and constitutional weight.”
The trial was rescheduled and last month Spurlock, of Montana, was convicted of murder for hire and other charges. He faces life in prison.
VIRGIN ISLANDS
Richard Dangleben Jr. is charged in the July 2023 fatal shooting of a police officer on St. Thomas when police responded to a 911 call about a man with a gun.
The DOJ in February 2024 said it would not seek the death penalty but Bondi reversed that this May. District Judge Robert Molloy last month threw out the notice to seek the death penalty on several grounds, including that the government had not shown good cause or that exigent circumstances existed for prosecutors to miss deadlines in the case.
“A change in the administration of the executive branch does not create an exigent circumstance excusing compliance with this Court’s orders,” Molloy wrote.
The government has filed a notice of appeal.
VIRGIN ISLANDS
Enock Cole and Jiovoni Smith were charged with robbery and murder in the 2018 killing of a hurricane contractor at a bar in St. Croix. Prosecutors last year said they would not be seeking the death penalty. With a trial scheduled for September, the government changed course in July 2025 and filed a notice to seek capital punishment against the two defendants. U.S. District Judge Wilma Lewis struck down that notice in August.
The case is still pending after a trial was held last month and ended in a mistrial when jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict.
WEST VIRGINIA
Monroe Merrell, of Maryland, is charged in the March 2020 kidnapping and murder of a man in Jefferson County after they argued over a drug debt of $40 and the murder of two witnesses the following month in Berkeley County. In January 2024, the government indicated it would not seek the death penalty, at which point the defense ceased gathering mitigation material for a capital trial or pursuing a plea agreement.
In July 2025 the government changed its position, which the defense has called “an affront to fundamental constitutional, statutory, and equitable principles.” They have filed a motion to strike the reversal as violating the death penalty statute, untimely and lacking good cause. The government has opposed the motion and both sides are awaiting a decision by U.S. District Judge Gina Groh.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Federal cases nationwide where Bondi DOJ has sought death penalty after Garland declined
Reporting by Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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