Five federal prisoners are set to be executed beginning in December as the U.S. government prepares to resume the death penalty after 15 years — a move some are calling “Evil First.”
All five men — three white, one black, one Native American — were sentenced to die for crimes involving the murder of children.
The U.S. government has executed three people since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. The most previous execution was that of Timothy McVeigh who was sentenced to die for the Oklahoma bombing.
The latest five scheduled executions came after Attorney General William Barr ordered the reinstatement of the death penalty.
Here is the schedule:
Dec. 9 — Daniel Lewis Lee, 46, a White Supremacist convicted of murdering a family of three including an 8-year-old girl.
Dec. 11 — Lezmond Mitchell, a Native American, convicted of murdering a 63-year-old woman and a 9-year-old girl.
Dec. 13 — Wesley Ira Purkey — sentenced to die for kidnapping, raping and murdering a 16-year-old girl.
Jan. 13 — Alfred Bourgeois — convicted of sexually molesting, torturing and killing his 2 1/2-year-old daughter.
Jan. 15 — Dustin Lee Honken — convicted of killing five people including 10-year-old and 6-year-old girls.
Federal executions are conducted in Terre Haute, Indiana.