Here's Why Death Penalty Opponents Say Resuming Federal Executions Is the Wrong Move

The Justice Department on Thursday said it would go back to executing federal death-row inmates for the first time in nearly two decades—a move capital punishment opponents quickly denounced as a step backward for criminal justice reform in the country.

“It’s distressing,” said Madeline Cohen, a capital defense attorney who represents three inmates on federal death row. “This administration has a history of taking rash actions, and this one is no exception.”

The federal government set execution dates as early as December for five convicted child murderers, including a man who killed a couple and their 8-year-old daughter in 1996 by suffocating them with plastic bags and tying rocks to their bodies before dumping them into an Illinois bayou. In a news release Thursday, Attorney General William Barr called those five inmates the “worst criminals” and said “we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.”