Here are the 5 the federal government plans to execute as it brings back death penalty
The federal government is resuming the death penalty and has plans to execute five people, officials say.
Officials haven’t used capital punishment almost two decades, the U.S. Department of Justice and Attorney General William Barr announced Thursday in a news release.
Executions are scheduled for five people who killed “the most vulnerable in our society — children and the elderly,” the government says.
The government says the offenders include:
Daniel Lewis Lee, convicted in 1999 of killing three people, including an 8-year-old, in Illinois. He shot the three family members with a stun gun, puts bags over their heads and tossed their weighted bodies into a bayou, federal officials say.
Lezmond Mitchell, found guilty of murder in an Arizona district court in 2003 after stabbing a grandmother and cutting the throat of her 9-year-old granddaughter.
Wesley Ira Purkey, found guilty in 2003 in Missouri of kidnapping a teenager and causing her death. The 16-year-old was raped and later thrown into a septic pond, the federal government says.
Alfred Bourgeois, convicted in 2004 in Texas of murdering his 2-year-old daughter. The toddler was molested before she was beaten to death, according to the government.
Dustin Lee Honken, convicted in 2004 in Iowa of murdering several people, including a 10-year-old and a 6-year-old. All five were shot to death, the government says.
“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 release.
The inmates don’t face any legal obstructions to execution, the government says.
The five executions will be from December 2019 to January 2020 at the U.S. Penitentiary in Indiana, according to the news release.
This story was originally published July 25, 2019 at 11:32 AM.
