VietJoy

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration is set to resume federal executions for the first time in 17 years after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a legal challenge from four convicted murderers.

The high court refused to hear the inmates’ argument that federal executions must adhere to the lethal injection protocols used in the states where each is set to be executed.   

The decision clears the way for executions of federal inmates to resume as early as July 13.    

The four federal inmates scheduled to be executed in July and August were convicted of murdering children decades ago.    

The first inmate set for execution, Daniel Lewis Lee was convicted in 1999 of murdering a family of three, including an eight-year-old girl three years earlier.

Three other inmates, including two convicted of raping and murdering young girls, are scheduled to be executed later in July and August.

The last federal execution in the United States took place in 2003 when Gulf War veteran Louis Jones Jr. was put to death for the kidnapping and murder of a 19-year-old soldier.

The Justice Department last year announced plans to execute five federal inmates after the Bureau of Prisons adopted a lethal injection protocol used by several states.   However, legal challenges delayed the executions.

In announcing the planned executions earlier this month, Attorney General William Barr, a fervent advocate of capital punishment, said that the government owes it “to the victims of these horrific crimes, and to the families left behind, to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.”

There are currently 62 federal death-row inmates in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.