Attorney General William Barr should be applauded for announcing Thursday that the federal government will resume executing convicted murderers on death row for the first time since 2003, beginning with five vicious killers in December and January.
“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,” Barr said in a statement. “We owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.”
While the legislation Barr refers to permits a punishment of death, it doesn’t compel it. We rely on the Justice Department to seek the death penalty only for the worst of the worst murderers – those who most clearly deserve to die. And we rely on juries in each individual murder case to act as the moral filter and conscience of the community to decide if the death penalty is warranted.
Reviewing the despicable crimes of the five men scheduled to be executed, we can safely say that the Justice Department has exercised its prerogative wisely.
The federal government has only imposed the death penalty on three murderers since 1988, when Congress reinstated capital punishment at the federal level.
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