WASHINGTON D.C. — The U.S. federal government has ordered the reinstatement of the death penalty for the first time in over 16 years.<br /><br />CNN reports that U.S. Attorney General Wiliam Barr has directed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule the execution of five inmates convicted of violent crimes against children and the elderly.<br /><br />The men will be executed in December 2019 and January 2020 at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.<br /><br />According to the Death Penalty Information Center, capital punishment is currently legal in 29 states. There are 2,673 death row inmates, with California detaining the most."<br /><br />"The federal government also retains the death penalty, and has 62 inmates in federal death row.<br /><br />So far, though, only three federal inmates have been put to death since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1988.<br /><br />The most recent was in 2003, when Louis Jones was executed for the 1995 kidnapping and murder of 19 year-old army private Tracie McBride.<br /><br />Per Barr's direction, the three-drug procedure previously used in federal executions will be replaced with a single drug, pentobarbital.<br /><br />According to the BBC, pentobarbital is a potent sedative which slows down the body, including nerves in the brain, to the point of death.<br /><br />The New York Times reports while public support for death penalty has been dwindling, President Trump has long been a supporter of it, even declaring last year that drug dealers should be put to death. <br /><br />According to the BBC, he thinks convicted criminals are treated too gently, and given too many chances to appeal their sentences.
