Public support for using the death penalty has decreased in recent years across the United States during what has been a dormant period for capital punishment. The death penalty has not been used since 2003 but any commitment to continuing that ended today as the US government scheduled five new executions for December 2019 and January 2020. Attorney General William Barr said in a statement: “The Justice Department upholds the rule of law – and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.” President Donald Trump, a long-term supporter of the death penalty, has not commented on the federal government’s decision.
Human rights groups have criticised the move.
The Death Penalty Information Center says 29 out of 50 US states currently have the death penalty.
They are:
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- North Carolina
- Ohio Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennesse
- Texas
- Utah
- Virginia
- Wyoming
A Governor-imposed moratorium – meaning capital punishment is temporarily suspended – is in place for California, Colorado, Oregon and Pennsylvania.
Some 1,500 men and women have been executed since the 1970s, although the numbers have decreased hugely in the last two decades.
The federal death penalty can be used in the case of murder, treason, espionage, piracy, significant drug trafficking or the attempted murder of court witnesses, jurors or staff.
There are currently 62 people on federal death row in America but only one of these has been convicted of terrorism.
None of the same inmates have been sentenced to death for treason or espionage, according to The Death Penalty Information Center.
Who are the inmates who will be executed?
The five federal death-row prisoners are all men who have been convicted of murdering children.
White supremacist Daniel Lewis Lee murdered a family of three including an eight-year-old girl – he is sentenced to die on December 9.
Lemond Mitchell stabbed a 63-year-old grandmother to death before slitting the throat of her nine-year-granddaughter – his execution is scheduled for December 11.
Wesley Ira Purkey raped and murdered a 16-year-girl and was separately convinced of bludgeoning a 80-year-old woman to death.
His execution date is set for December 13.
Alfred Bourgeois sexually molested and murdered his two-year-old daughter, while Dustin Lee Honken shot five people dead.
They face execution on January 13 and 15 respectively.
All of the men will be given a single injection of barbiturate Pentobarbital replacing a previous policy of a three-drug procedure, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.