"[US Attorney General William] Barr today directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to schedule the executions of four federal death-row inmates who were convicted of murdering children in violation of federal law and who, in two cases, raped the children they murdered," the release said on Monday.
Last year, a US district court injunction put federal executions on hold due to concerns over the single-drug lethal injection protocol, which an appeals court recently removed.
"The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit vacated that injunction - clearing the way for the federal government to resume capital punishment after a nearly two-decade hiatus," the Justice Department said in Monday's statement.
The four planned executions, according to the statement, include: Daniel Lewis Lee, who murdered a family of three including an eight-year-old girl; Wesley Ira Purkey, who violently raped and murdered a 16-year-old girl; Dustin Lee Honken, who shot and killed five people including two children; and Keith Dwayne Nelson who raped and murdered a 10-year-old girl.
The executions are set to take place, respectively, on 13, 15, 17 July and 28 August, according to the Justice Department.