Trump Justice Department wants to resume the death penalty as a federal sanction, according to a press statement issued today by U.S. Attorney General William Barr.
This intention of the Trump administration has been publicly shown a day after former special prosecutor for the Russian plot, Robert Mueller, told the House Judiciary Committee and House Intelligence Committee that his investigation “did not exonerate” the President of any possible crime.
William Barr said in a press release that the U.S. government announced Thursday its intention “to resume capital punishment after a nearly two decade lapse, and bringing justice to victims of the most horrific crimes”.
According to the press report, “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.”
Local media reports stated that the prosecutor William Barr has asked the federal Bureau of Prisons Acting Director, Hugh Hurwitz, to schedule executions for five convicted murderers and some cases of torturing and raping against children and the elderly.
The executions, which have not been practiced at the federal level since 2003, are scheduled to occur on December and January 2020, according to the announcement.
Barr remarked that “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.”
According to a timeline regarding this sanction, the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 and that has allowed the most conservative US southern states, such as Alabama and Mississippi, to implement this punishment.
In accordance with the chronology, the U.S. Congress passed a law in 1988 that allowed the death penalty for drug crimes.
On June 20, Marion Wilson was sentenced to death in the state of Georgia for the murder of a prison guard in 1996, making him the 1,500th executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated four decades ago.
Translated by: José Espinoza
Noticias Newswire
