Federal Government to Resume Capital Punishment After Nearly Two Decade Lapse https://t.co/GcVD08VOw8 — Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) July 25, 2019 DOJ announced that the federal government is going to resume capital punishment, and AG Bill Bar has directed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule executions for five death-row inmates pic.twitter.com/7usR1jX2IG — Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) July 25, 2019 One of the men the federal government wants to put to death -- Daniel Lewis Lee -- was sent to death row for killing 3 people in Tilly, Ark in 1999.



At the time, Lee was in the middle of a cross-country crime spree. https://t.co/JQ4eJv7isl — John Moritz (@JohnMoritz18) July 25, 2019

Five different inmates are now scheduled for executions in December and early January, at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, as the Justice Department noted that all five have “exhausted their appellate and post-conviction remedies, and currently no legal impediments prevent their executions.”

Thursday's announcement said the inmates would be put to death using a single lethal injection drug - pentobarbital - which the feds say has been used by 14 states in recent years for executions.

For reference, here's where the country stands on the state level re: the death penalty pic.twitter.com/E0fjjr1LI8 — Meghan Keneally (@mkeneally) July 25, 2019

The move drew immediate opposition.

“Too many innocent people have been put to death,” said Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA). “We need a national moratorium on the death penalty, not a resurrection.”

“There’s enough violence in the world. The government shouldn’t add to it,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). “When I am president, we will abolish the death penalty.”