A US federal judge has temporarily halted plans to carry out the first executions of federal prisoners in the United States in nearly two decades, a newly published court order showed
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st November, 2019) A US Federal judge has temporarily halted plans to carry out the first executions of federal prisoners in the United States in nearly two decades, a newly published court order showed.US Attorney General William Barr announced in July that the United States would resume carrying out federal executions for the first time in 16 years and said that five death sentences would be carried out beginning on December 9.
But District Judge Tanya Chutkan late on Wednesday issued a court order delaying the executions after four of the federal prisoners due to be executed petitioned the court for an injunction.
"This court finds that it is in the public interest to issue a preliminary injunction. Accordingly, each of Plaintiffs' motions for preliminary injunctions is hereby GRANTED," Chutkan said in the order.
Though several individual US states regularly carry out the death penalty, the US federal government has not executed a prisoner since 2003.
Prior to the temporary injunction, the federal government had scheduled five executions for December and January for inmates Daniel Lee, Lezmond Mitchell, Wesley Purkey, Alfred Bourgeois and Dustin Honken. Purkey was not among the four prisoners who petitioned the court for the injunction.
