Sending mixed signals is a tried and true tactic for politicians seeking to please people on all sides of a contentious political issue. But the Biden administration's on again, off again policy on the federal death penalty is truly head-spinning.
This was made especially clear on Oct. 12, when jury selection started in the federal death penalty prosecution of Sayfullo Saipov, an Uzbek man charged in a 2017 truck attack that killed eight people on a crowded Manhattan bike path. He allegedly carried out this attack as a step toward joining the Islamic State, or ISIS.
