A federal judge on Wednesday repeatedly urged prudence as the Justice Department contemplates whether to seek the death penalty for a man accused of fatally shooting two Israeli embassy staffers earlier this year.
U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss’s suggestions came as the parties discussed an Oct. 20 deadline defense attorneys for Elias Rodriguez face to present mitigating evidence to the government as it mulls pursuing capital punishment.
While Rodriguez’s counsel have called the timeline “too quick,” federal prosecutors said during the hearing that the government believes it’s “reasonable” and that the courts have no business weighing in on DOJ’s internal timetable to make the decision.
Moss declined to step in, instead letting the parties reach an agreement about speeding up discovery to help ease the defense’s concerns. Still, he urged caution.
“Why not take some additional time to make sure the decision is an informed decision?” the judge asked at one point.
Rodriguez is accused of gunning down a young couple who worked for the embassy — Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26 — in May outside a Jewish museum in Washington.
He faces nine counts, including murder of a foreign official and carrying out a hate crime resulting in death, and has pleaded not guilty.
Eric Klein, one of Rodriguez’s attorneys, said the Justice Department’s death penalty decision is among the “most consequential” of the case.
“It could impact whether he lives or dies,” Klein said, later adding that it’s “not in anyone’s interest” for the government to make a “hasty decision” on the matter.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler agreed that the choice is “consequential” but said it’s the government’s to make. The final call rests with Attorney General Pam Bondi, who must personally direct the prosecuting office to pursue a death sentence.
“That is her decision alone to make,” Nestler said.
Prosecutors have already taken a step toward eventually seeking capital punishment by including “special findings” in Rodriguez’s indictment.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said last month that deciding whether to pursue the death penalty is a “weighty decision” that “takes time.”
Her office and the Justice Department’s Capital Review Committee will make recommendations about how to proceed to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who will in turn make a recommendation to Bondi.
Moss seemed to agree with prosecutors that he could not dictate DOJ’s internal timeline but appeared wary of it nonetheless.
“We’re all human beings here, too, and I think we all want to make sure there’s a process,” the judge said.
The choice in Rodriguez’s case is being made as President Trump seeks reinvigorate the death penalty.
On his first day back in the White House, he directed Bondi to pursue it for “all crimes of a severity demanding its use,” ending the moratorium on federal executions put in place under President Biden’s administration.
In recent high-profile killings, including the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk and the stabbing of a Ukrainian refugee in North Carolina, Trump urged state and federal prosecutors to seek death sentences.
However, the death penalty has not been in use in Washington, D.C. for nearly 70 years.
It was repealed by the D.C. Council in 1981, and a decade later, residents rejected a referendum to restore it. That means cases must be brought at the federal level for capital punishment to be at stake.
The last execution in Washington took place in 1957, when Robert Carter was killed by electric chair.
He was convicted of fatally shooting an off-duty police officer who pursued him after he robbed a dry cleaners of $54. Though the jury in the case recommended a life sentence, the law at the time mandated death.
