US federal government to resume executions
Capital punishment reprise comes after 16-year moratorium
The US federal government will resume executing death-row inmates after a 16-year pause, the justice department has announced.
Attorney General William Barr announced that he had directed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule the executions of five inmates, who have been convicted of murders or rapes of children or the elderly.
They will be executed by lethal injection using a single drug, pentobarbital, which replaces a three-drug cocktail previously used in federal executions.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In his statement, Barr said the government was moving to exact justice against the “worst criminals” and bring comfort to victims and family members.
The move lifts what was a moratorium on the federal death penalty - as opposed to state-directed executions - since 2003. Federal cases are rare compared to those prosecuted by individual states because the number of crimes that fall under the national jurisdiction is limited. They include terrorism and major drug trafficking.
Advocates argue that capital punishment is “a deterrent against serious crime”, CNN says, but opponents “point to the racial disparities of death row inmates, the financial costs, and wrongful convictions”.
The BBC says the move is in line with Donald Trump’s long-standing attitude to crime and punishment.
“The president has expressed a harsh attitude toward convicted criminals in the past,” writes North America reporter Anthony Zurcher, “claiming that they are treated too gently and given too many opportunities to appeal against their sentences.”
The move was condemned by Democrats. “The federal government should be leading the effort to end this brutal and often cruel punishment,” said Dianne Feinstein, the Senate Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat. Bernie Sanders said he would abolish the death penalty if elected.
A report from the NAACP Legal Defence and Educational Fund says there are currently 61 federal inmates on death row, including Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who planted a bomb at the Boston Marathon in 2013, and Dylann Roof, who killed nine black church members during a Bible study session in 2015 in South Carolina.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Missouri executes man despite DA's objection
Speed Read Marcellus Williams maintained his innocence and the killing was opposed by the victim's family
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
FBI: US violent crime falls again, hits pre-Covid levels
Speed Read A wide-ranging report found that violent crime dropped 3% in the last year, while murder dropped 11.6%
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Judge rejects Trump bid to make NY case federal
Speed Read Judge Alvin Hellerstein refused Trump's motion to transfer his criminal case to federal court
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Iwao Hakamada: Japan's record-breaking death row prisoner
Under the Radar Former boxer spent 46 years condemned to execution but his retrial could clear his name
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Trump ally Bannon reports to prison
Speed Read He will serve a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump won't testify as trial enters final phase
Speed Read Despite his public insistence on testifying, Trump's defense team called two witnesses, "neither of them the former president"
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump hush money trial: what has the jury heard?
Today's Big Question Former loyal fixer Michael Cohen proves star witness for prosecution, but Stormy Daniels's graphic testimony could offer grounds for appeal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
New York prosecutors lay out case against Trump
Speed Read The former president's first criminal trial started in earnest Monday
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published