(Bloomberg) -- The death penalty, which only recently had appeared headed for extinction in the U.S., may be poised for a resurgence.Attorney General William Barr said Thursday the federal government will resume executions in December after a 16-year hiatus. The announcement followed a Supreme Court
1 / 2 term that indicated an increasing receptiveness toward capital punishment now that President Donald Trump’s two appointees are on the bench.In 2015 the death penalty was under so much pressure that then-Justice Antonin Scalia said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if his colleagues outlawed it. Scalia, a conservative who viewed the death penalty as constitutional, died the following year.
Those comments made sense at the time. Executions had been declining steadily since 1999, when a modern-day record 98 people were put to death. Only 20 people were executed in 2016, the lowest number since 1991, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks capital punishment. And the Supreme Court imposed limits, outlawing executions of intellectually disabled people in 2002, juveniles in 2005 and child rapists in 2008.
Story continuesThe two were in the majority this year when the court voted 5-4 to let Missouri give a lethal injection to a man who said his rare medical condition meant he would probably choke on his own blood. Writing for the court, Gorsuch rejected contentions that the injection would violate the Eighth Amendment ban on ”cruel and unusual” punishment.
In making his announcement Thursday, Barr said lethal injection dates had been set for five convicted murders, starting with Daniel Lewis Lee on Dec. 9. Lee was convicted of the 1998 killing an Arkansas family of three, including an 8-year-old girl, as part of what prosecutors said was a rampage geared toward setting up a whites-only nation.
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