The Return of the Federal Death Penalty

Illustration by Linas Garsys/The Washington Times

When swift and certain punishment it warranted

What kind of man rapes and murders a 16-year-old girl and then dismembers, burns and disposes of her body in a septic bond?

The kind of man, in my view, who ought to be executed.

Thankfully, President Trump and his attorney general agree.

On July 25, 2019, Attorney General William M. Barr directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to adopt a proposed Addendum to the Federal Execution Protocol, which clears the way for the federal government to resume capital punishment after nearly two decades. The order will deliver final justice to the victims of the most horrific crimes and their families.

According to a Justice Department statement, “the Attorney General also directed the Acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to schedule the executions of five death-row inmates convicted of murdering, and in some cases torturing and raping, the most vulnerable in our society — children and the elderly.

“Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people’s representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President,” noted Mr. Barr in the statement. “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. 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.”

Five men are scheduled to be executed in December 2019 and January 2020. The Justice Department stated that the five men are Daniel Lewis Lee, Lezmond Mitchell, Wesley Ira Purkey, Alfred Bourgeois and Dustin Lee Honkin.

Lee, a member of a white supremacist group who murdered a family of three, including an 8-year-old girl. After robbing and shooting the victims with a stun gun, Lee covered their heads with plastic bags, sealed the bags with duct tape, weighed down each victim with rocks and threw the family of three into the Illinois bayou.

Mitchell stabbed to death a 63-year-old grandmother and forced her 9-year-old granddaughter to sit beside her lifeless body for a 30- to 40-mile drive.

Read the rest from Paul Davis HERE.

If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.