US AG reinstates capital punishment News
CACorrections (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
US AG reinstates capital punishment

US Attorney General William Barr on Thursday directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to adopt an addendum resuming capital punishment after nearly two decades. Additionally, the Acting Director of the BOP was directed to schedule the executions of five inmates convicted of murdering children and the elderly.

In a press release from the Department of Justice, Barr is quoted saying “The Justice Department upholds the rule of law—and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.”

The Federal Execution Protocol Addendum, replaces the three-drug procedure with pentobarbital, the same drug that is used in states such as Georgia and Texas.

The press release also includes names each of the five convicted inmates, and lists the crimes of which they are convicted.

THIS DAY @ LAW

US Supreme Court ruled Indians not US citizens

On November 3, 1884, the US Supreme Court ruled in Elk v. Wilkins that John Elk, an American Indian who had tried to vote in a federal election in Omaha, Nebraska, was not a US citizen entitled to the protection of the 14th and 15th Amendments of the US Constitution. Native Americans became eligible for citizenship in 1887 under the Dawes Act, but only in 1924, under the Indian Citizenship Act, were all Native Americans born in the US made citizens.

Last public execution at Tyburn Gallows in London

On November 3, 1783, the last public execution took place at Tyburn Gallows in London, when John Austin was hanged for highway robbery. From the hanging of William Fitz Osburn in 1196 until Austin's execution, Tyburn served as London's primary location for public executions.

Learn more about the trial of John Austin.