The US Justice Department has announced the federal Government will resume executing death-row inmates for the first time since 2003, ending an informal moratorium even as the nation sees a broad shift away from capital punishment.
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," Barr said.
Most Democrats oppose capital punishment. Vice-President Joe Biden this week shifted to call for the elimination of the federal death penalty after years of supporting it.
By contrast, Republican President Donald Trump has spoken often — and sometimes wistfully — about capital punishment and his belief that executions serve as 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," Trump said last year after 11 people were gunned down in a Pittsburgh synagogue.
