The federal government announced Thursday it would resume capital punishment after a 16-year pause and promptly ordered the execution of several federal inmates.
Attorney General William Barr directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to prepare the executions of five men who were found guilty of murder in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
The sentences would be carried out from Dec. 9, 2019, to Jan. 15, 2020, at U.S. Penitentiary Terre Haute in Indiana, the same site where Louis Jones was executed in 2003 _ the most recent federal execution. He received the punishment by lethal injection for kidnapping, raping and killing a 19-year-old female soldier.
The soon-to-be-executed inmates include a father who tortured, molested and fatally beat his own 2-year-old daughter; a man who raped, murdered, dismembered and burned a teenage girl; and a white supremacist who robbed a family, covered their heads with plastic bags and threw them in a bayou.
Capital punishment is legal, but it's rarely used at the federal level. The government has executed only three inmates since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988, following a 16-year period in which it was ruled unconstitutional. Two inmates were executed in 2001 _ two years before Jones _ and the last one before those was in 1963, when Victor Feguer was executed by hanging, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Thursday's announcement comes five years after a botched state execution in Oklahoma led then-President Barack Obama to order the Justice Department to review the practice of capital punishment with injection drugs. The government said the review has been done, but it did not release details.
Barr said a newly revised federal execution protocol "closely mirrors" death penalty practices by several states, including Georgia, Missouri and Texas. Federal executions will be carried out with a single drug called pentobarbital, which the department said has been used more than 200 times in 14 states since 2010.
"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," Barr said in the statement.
At least two Democratic presidential candidates quickly weighed in against the decision on Twitter.
"Let me be clear: capital punishment is immoral and deeply flawed," California Sen. Kamala Harris wrote. "Too many innocent people have been put to death. We need a national moratorium on the death penalty, not a resurrection."
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders vowed to abolish it if he's elected.
"There's enough violence in the world. The government shouldn't add to it," he said.
The attorney general said more executions will be scheduled at a later date. There are 62 federal prisoners on death row across the country, according to a list compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center. Only one of them is a woman.
The five federal inmates who are set to be executed are:
_ Daniel Lewis Lee, a member of a white supremacist group who murdered a family of three, including an 8-year-old girl. The Justice Department said he robbed and shot the victims with a stun gun, covered their heads with plastic bags and duct tape, weighed them down with rocks and threw them in a bayou. He was convicted in 1999 in Arkansas and is scheduled to be executed on Dec. 9, 2019.
_ Lezmond Mitchell, who fatally stabbed a 63-year-old woman and forced her 9-year-old granddaughter to sit beside her lifeless body for a 30- to 40-mile drive. He then slit the girl's throat, crushed her head with 20-pound rocks, and severed and buried both victims' heads and hands. Mitchell was found guilty in Arizona in 2003 and is set to be executed on Dec. 9, 2019.
_ Wesley Ira Purkey, who raped and murdered a 16-year-old girl and then dismembered, burned and dumped her body in a septic pond. He was separately convicted in state court for using a claw hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who suffered from polio and walked with a cane. Purkey was convicted in Missouri in 2003 and his execution is set for Dec. 13, 2019.
_ Alfred Bourgeois, who physically and emotionally tortured, sexually molested and fatally beat his own 2-year-old daughter. He was sentenced to death in 2004 in Texas and is set to be executed on Jan. 13, 2020.
_ Dustin Lee Honken, who shot and killed five people _ two men who planned to testify against him, a mother and her 10-year-old and 6-year-old daughters. He was found guilty in 2004 in Iowa and is scheduled to be executed on Jan. 15, 2020.
