On Friday, Attorney General William Barr directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to execute three more death row inmates before President-elect Joe Biden takes office January 20.
Biden has previously said that he supports legislation to end the federal death penalty.
“Since 1973, over 160 individuals in this country have been sentenced to death and were later exonerated,” Biden tweeted on July 25, 2019 when Trump announced his decision to resume federal executions. “Because we can’t ensure that we get these cases right every time, we must eliminate the death penalty.”
However, as Fox News pointed out, the three inmates Barr wants to execute were all convicted of murder:
– Alfred Bourgeois was convicted for abusing, torturing, and beating his two-year-old daughter to death in 2002.
– Cory Johnson murdered seven people associated with his drug-trafficking activities in 1992.
– Dustin John Higgs kidnapped and murdered three women in the 1990s.
All three men are scheduled to be executed in December 11 and January 14 and 15, respectively.
A 2019 Gallup poll found that 60% of Americans consider life in prison as the appropriate punishment for murder. Only 36% thought the death penalty was an appropriate punishment.