---
kind: "section"
citation: "18 U.S.C. § 3596"
title: "18"
title_heading: "Crimes and Criminal Procedure"
number: "3596"
heading: "Implementation of a sentence of death"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/18/3596"
units:
  - "Part II — Criminal Procedure"
  - "Chapter 228 — Death Sentence"
---

# §3596. Implementation of a sentence of death

- (a) **In General.—** A person who has been sentenced to death pursuant to this chapter shall be committed to the custody of the [Attorney General](/usc/18/3077.md?p=7) until exhaustion of the procedures for appeal of the judgment of conviction and for review of the sentence. When the sentence is to be implemented, the [Attorney General](/usc/18/3077.md?p=7) shall release the person sentenced to death to the custody of a United States marshal, who shall supervise implementation of the sentence in the manner prescribed by the law of the [State](/usc/18/3077.md?p=5) in which the sentence is imposed. If the law of the [State](/usc/18/3077.md?p=5) does not provide for implementation of a sentence of death, the court shall designate another [State](/usc/18/3077.md?p=5), the law of which does provide for the implementation of a sentence of death, and the sentence shall be implemented in the latter [State](/usc/18/3077.md?p=5) in the manner prescribed by such law.
- (b) **Pregnant Woman.—** A sentence of death shall not be carried out upon a woman while she is pregnant.
- (c) **Mental Capacity.—** A sentence of death shall not be carried out upon a person who is mentally retarded. A sentence of death shall not be carried out upon a person who, as a result of mental disability, lacks the mental capacity to understand the death penalty and why it was imposed on that person.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 103–322, title VI, § 60002(a), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 1967.)