The U.S. Justice Department has scheduled the execution of five death row federal inmates, after Attorney General William Barr announced he has reinstated a two-decades long dormant policy to resume the federal government's use of capital punishment.

"Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people's representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the president," 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."

The Justice Department said it has scheduled executions for five men who have been convicted of horrific murders and sex crimes.

Those inmates include Daniel Lewis Lee, a white supremacist who was convicted in Arkansas for murdering a family of three, including an eight-year-old girl.

Another one of the five is Lezmond Mitchell, who was found guilty by a jury in Arizona of stabbing a 63-year-old grandmother and forcing her young granddaughter to sit next to her lifeless body on a car journey before slitting the girl's throat.

"Each of these inmates has exhausted their appellate and post-conviction remedies," the department said, adding that all five executions will take place at the U.S. Penitentiary Terre Haute in Indiana.

Currently, 29 states have the death penalty on the books, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, but a dozen states have accounted for every execution to take place in the U.S. over the last five years, while 10 other death-penalty states haven't carried out an execution in more than a decade.

The federal government hasn't executed a prisoner since 2003, with the last high-profile death penalty carried out two years earlier in the case of Timothy McVeigh, convicted in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

There are currently 62 federal inmates sentenced to death, a population that has more than doubled since 2003.

U.S. President Donald Trump has called for increasing use of the death penalty for drug traffickers and mass shooters. </s> The US is reinstating the use of capital punishment and has immediately scheduled the executions for five death row federal inmates.

The policy, announced by the Justice Department, has been dormant for almost two decades, with the last execution carried out in 2003.

"Congress has expressly authorised the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people's representatives in both houses of congress and signed by the president," Attorney General William Barr said in a statement on Thursday.

"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 has called for increasing use of the death penalty for drug traffickers and mass shooters.

The Justice Department said it has scheduled executions for five federal inmates who have been convicted of horrific murders and sex crimes.

Those inmates include Daniel Lewis Lee, a white supremacist who was convicted in Arkansas for murdering a family of three, including an eight-year-old girl.

Another one of the five is Lezmond Mitchell, who was found guilty by a jury in Arizona of stabbing a 63-year-old grandmother and forcing her young granddaughter to sit next to her lifeless body on a car journey before slitting the girl's throat.

"Each of these inmates has exhausted their appellate and post-conviction remedies," the department said, adding that all five executions will take place at the US Penitentiary Terre Haute in Indiana.

The first execution is scheduled for December 9 and the remaining four over the following weeks.

"Additional executions will be scheduled at a later date," a statement from the Department of Justice said.

The federal decision will affect only cases within that system, as US states separately decide whether to use capital punishment in their criminal justice systems.

Twenty states have banned the death penalty while others have not carried out executions in decades.

The last time the federal government executed someone was in 2003, one of less than a handful of such cases since the death penalty was reinstated at the federal level in 1988.

While there has not been a federal execution in more than 15 years, federal attorneys have continued to carry out death penalty prosecutions. </s> WASHINGTON (CBS SF/AP/CNN) — The Justice Department said Thursday that it will carry out executions of federal death row inmates for the first time since 2003.

Five inmates who have been sentenced to death are scheduled to be executed starting in December, according to Attorney General William Barr.

In 2014, following a botched state execution in Oklahoma, then-President Barack Obama directed the department to conduct a broad review of capital punishment and issues surrounding lethal injection drugs. It remains unclear today what came of that review and whether it will change the way the federal government carries out executions.

That review has been completed and the executions can continue, the department said.

There are currently only two California men on federal death row. Jurijus Kadamovas and Iouri Mikhel were sentenced to death for the 2001 killings and kidnappings-for-ransom of five Russian and Georgian immigrants whose bodies were dumped in a reservoir near Yosemite National Park.

Texas leads the national with inmates on federal death row with 13, Missouri follows with 8 and Virginia 7.

The five federal inmates ordered to be executed are Daniel Lewis Lee for murdering a family of three, including an 8-year-old girl; Lezmond Mitchell for murdering a 63-year-old and her 9-year-old granddaughter; Wesley Ira Purkey for raping and murdering a 16-year-old girl; Alfred Bourgeois for torturing and killing his own 2-year-old daughter; Dustin Lee Honken, for shooting and killing five people, including two young girls.

Barr described the five as “five death-row inmates convicted of murdering, and in some cases torturing and raping, the most vulnerable in our society — children and the elderly.”

Executions on the federal level have been rare. The government has put to death only three defendants since restoring the federal death penalty in 1988, the most recent of which occurred in 2003, when Louis Jones was executed for the 1995 kidnapping, rape and murder of a young female soldier.

“Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people’s representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President,” Barr said in a news release. “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.”

Capital punishment has emerged as a flashpoint in the Democratic presidential primary, with former Vice President Joe Biden this week shifting to call for the elimination of the federal death penalty after years of supporting it. Biden’s criminal justice plan also would encourage states to follow the federal government in ending the death penalty, 25 years after he helped pass a tough crime bill that expanded capital punishment for more potential offenses.

The lone Democratic White House hopeful who has publicly supported preserving capital punishment in certain circumstances is Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, who has said he would leave it open as an option for major crimes such as terrorism.

At the state level, the clock stopped ticking for more than 730 inmates housed on San Quentin’s Death Row including Scott Peterson, Richard Allen Davis, Charles Ng and Cary Stayner after Gov. Gavin Newsom officially signed a moratorium on executions in March.

There are currently 737 inmates on California’s largest-in-the-nation death row. Of those, more than six in 10 condemned California inmates are minorities, which his Newsom’s office cited as proof of racial disparities in who is sentenced to die. Since 1973, five California inmates who were sentenced to death were later exonerated.

Eighty condemned California inmates have died of natural causes since the state reinstated capital punishment in 1978. Another 26 committed suicide. California has executed 13 inmates, while two were executed in other states.

© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten. AP and CNN contributed to this report. </s> The Justice Department says it will carry out executions of federal death row inmates for the first time since 2003, US Attorney-General William Barr announced.

The department says five inmates who have been sentenced to death will be executed between December 2019 and January 2020.

On Mr Barr’s order, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has scheduled executions for those five people who were all found guilty 15 years ago or more in brutal murders that involved children.

“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,” Mr Barr said in a statement.

Acting on US President Donald Trump’s call for tougher penalties on violent crimes, Mr Barr directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to adopt a new lethal injection protocol to clear the way to carry out death sentences.

The department announced that it will be replacing the three-drug cocktail previously used in federal executions with the single drug, pentobarbital.

In 2014, following a botched state execution in Oklahoma, then-President Barack Obama directed the department to conduct a broad review of capital punishment and issues surrounding lethal injection drugs.

It remains unclear today what came of that review and whether it will change the way the federal government carries out executions.

That review has been completed and the executions can continue, the department said.

“Since 2010, 14 states have used pentobarbital in over 200 executions, and federal courts, including the Supreme Court, have repeatedly upheld the use of pentobarbital in executions as consistent with the Eighth Amendment” of the constitution, which bars cruel and unusual punishment, the Justice Department said.

There were 25 executions in the United States last year, all carried out by state authorities on people convicted on state charges.

Executions on the federal level have been rare.

The government has put to death only three defendants since restoring the federal death penalty in 1988, the most recent of which occurred in 2003, when Louis Jones was executed for the 1995 kidnapping, rape and murder of a young female soldier.

“Congress has expressly authorised the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people’s representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President,” Mr Barr said in a news release.

“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.”

There are 62 individuals currently on federal death row, according to a tracker maintained by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Capital punishment has emerged as a flashpoint in the Democratic presidential primary, with former Vice President Joe Biden this week shifting to call for the elimination of the federal death penalty after years of supporting it.

Mr Biden’s criminal justice plan also would encourage states to follow the federal government in ending the death penalty, 25 years after he helped pass a tough crime bill that expanded capital punishment for more potential offences. </s> The gas chamber at San Quentin prison was dismantled in March. Public support for the death penalty has fallen GETTY IMAGES

The US federal government is to begin executing death row inmates after a 15-year hiatus, the Trump administration announced yesterday.

William Barr, the attorney-general, directed the US Bureau of Prisons to schedule executions in December and January for five inmates.

The condemned men are Daniel Lee, Lezmond Mitchell, Wesley Purkey, Alfred Bourgeois and Dustin Honken. Each had committed multiple murders that fell under federal jurisdiction and had exhausted all legal appeals. The executions are to take place in Indiana.

Federal capital cases are rarer than those prosecuted by individual states, given the more limited set of crimes that fall under the national jurisdiction. These include terrorism and large-scale drug-trafficking.

Only three federal executions have taken place since a Supreme Court ban was overturned in 1988:… </s> The federal government will resume executing death row inmates after nearly two decades without doing so, the Department of Justice announced Thursday.

Attorney General William Barr directed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule the executions of five inmates convicted of murder and other crimes. The executions have been scheduled for December 2019 and January 2020.

The department also announced a new execution protocol, replacing the three-drug cocktail previously used in federal executions with the single drug, pentobarbital.

The last federal execution was carried out in 2003. There are 62 individuals on federal death row, according to a tracker maintained by the Death Penalty Information Center.

The Supreme Court outlawed state and federal death penalty laws in the 1972 decision Furman v. Georgia. The ruling invalidated the laws then on the books, but did not outlaw the death penalty under all circumstances, leading states and the federal government to draft new legislation.

The federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988, and expanded by Congress in 1994. No federal executions took place, however, until 2001, according to to the Bureau of Prisons website.

"Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people's representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President," Barr said in a statement. "Under Administrations of both parties, the Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals, including these five murderers, each of whom was convicted by a jury of his peers after a full and fair proceeding." </s> Attorney General William Barr has directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to resume capital punishment, nearly two decades after the death penalty was last used at the federal level.

Barr has also directed the acting director of the BOP, Hugh Hurwitz, to schedule the executions of five death row inmates beginning this December.

Executions had lapsed due to a shortage of sodium thiopental, an anesthetic that’s part of a three-drug cocktail used in executions as stipulated by the Federal Execution Protocol.

Barr directed the BOP on Thursday to adopt an addendum to the protocol, replacing the three-drug procedure with a single drug — pentobarbital.

Single doses of pentobarbital have been used before at the state level, where sodium thiopental shortages have prompted potentially unconstitutional workarounds.

In 2014, then-President Barack Obama ordered a review of the lethal injection drugs that states had begun to use instead of sodium thiopental, following a horrific, botched execution in Oklahoma.

That following year, Oklahoma legalized execution by nitrogen asphyxiation, and also authorized the use of either electrocution or the firing squad in the event traditional drugs are unavailable.

“Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people’s representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President,” Barr said in a statement. “Under Administrations of both parties, the Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals, including these five murderers, each of whom was convicted by a jury of his peers after a full and fair proceeding.

“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,” he added.

The last execution under the federal death penalty took place on March 18, 2003, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center. Sixty two inmates are currently on federal death row. </s> The US justice department has said the federal government will resume executing death-row inmates for the first time since 2003.

Attorney general William Barr instructed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule executions starting in December for five men, all accused of murdering children.

Although the death penalty remains legal in 30 states, executions on the federal level are rare.

“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,” Mr Barr said.

The move is likely to stir up fresh interest in an issue that has largely lain dormant in recent years, adding a new front to the culture battles that US president Donald Trump already is waging on matters such as abortion and immigration in the lead-up to the 2020 elections.

Former vice president Joe Biden this week shifted to call for the elimination of the federal death penalty after years of supporting it.

By contrast, Mr Trump has spoken often – and sometimes wistfully – about capital punishment and his belief that executions serve as both an effective deterrent and appropriate punishment for some crimes, including mass shootings and the killings of police officers.

“I think they should very much bring the death penalty into vogue,” Mr Trump said last year after 11 people were gunned down in a Pittsburgh synagogue.

Mr Trump was a vocal proponent of the death penalty for decades before taking office, most notably in 1989 when he took out full-page advertisements in New York City newspapers urging elected officials to “Bring back the death penalty” following the rape of a jogger in Central Park.

“If the punishment is strong,” he wrote then, “the attacks on innocent people will stop.”

Five Harlem teenagers were convicted in the Central Park case but had their convictions vacated years later after another man confessed to the rape.

More than a decade after their exoneration, the city agreed to pay the so-called Central Park Five $41 million, a settlement Mr Trump blasted as “outrageous”.

The death penalty remains legal in 30 states, but only a handful regularly conduct executions. Texas has executed 108 prisoners since 2010, far more than any other state.

Executions on the federal level have long been rare.

The government has put to death only three defendants since restoring the federal death penalty in 1988, the most recent of which occurred in 2003, when Louis Jones was executed for the 1995 kidnapping, rape and murder of a young female soldier.

In 2014, following a botched state execution in Oklahoma, then-president Barack Obama directed the justice department to conduct a broad review of capital punishment and issues surrounding lethal injection drugs.

That review has been completed, Mr Barr said Thursday, and it has cleared the way for executions to resume.

Mr Barr approved a new procedure for lethal injections that replaces the three-drug cocktail previously used in federal execution with a single drug, pentobarbital. This is similar to the procedure used in several states, including Georgia, Missouri and Texas.

Although there has not been a federal execution since 2003, the justice department has continued to approve death penalty prosecutions and federal courts have sentenced defendants to death.– AP </s> July 25 (UPI) -- U.S. Attorney General William Barr ordered the government Thursday to resume capital punishment, 16 years after the last federal execution.

Barr said he asked Hugh Hurwitz, the acting director of the Bureau of Prisons, to schedule executions for five death row inmates starting in December.

"Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people's representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President," Barr said. "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."

The last federal execution was that of Gulf War veteran Louis Jones Jr. in March 2003 for the rape and murder of a fellow soldier, Pvt. Tracie McBride in 1995.

Jones admitted kidnapping the young female recruit at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas, but his lawyer sought clemency by arguing Jones suffered behavior-altering brain damage from exposure to nerve gas during the Gulf War that gave him uncontrollable, violent urges.

Jones' was the third federal execution in 40 years. In 2014, former President Barack Obama ordered then-Attorney General Eric holder to review the use of the death penalty in the United States, effectively implementing a moratorium on executions.

Hurwitz has scheduled the executions -- for Daniel Lewis Lee on Dec. 9, Lezmond Mitchell on Dec. 11, Wesley Ira Purkey on Dec. 13, Alfred Bourgeois on Jan. 13 and Dustin Lee Honken on Jan. 15.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr resumes the federal usage of the death penalty. Five inmates are expected to be executed between December 2019 and January 2020. If carried out, these would be the first federal executions in the United States in sixteen years.