These Are the 5 Men the Federal Government Plans to Execute

No one on federal death row has been executed since 2003, but on Thursday, William P. Barr, the attorney general, announced that the government was resuming executions, starting with five men convicted of killing children.

The men, whose ages range from 37 to 67, have each been convicted of heinous crimes, and together have been involved in the slayings of 13 victims.

[Mr. Barr’s decision runs counter to a broad national shift away from the death penalty as public support for it has dwindled.]

All five are being held at a high-security federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., where their executions are scheduled for December and January.

Here is a look at the five men and the crimes they committed.

Lezmond Mitchell, 37, the only Native American on federal death row

Mr. Mitchell was convicted in 2003 of killing a Navajo Nation grandmother and her 9-year-old granddaughter. A jury decided that he should face the death penalty

Mr. Mitchell stabbed the 63-year-old grandmother to death and then killed her granddaughter after forcing the child to sit near her grandmother’s body while he drove for 30 to 40 miles, according to the Justice Department.

The Justice Department has scheduled Mr. Mitchell’s execution for Dec. 11.

Wesley Purkey, 67, who killed a 16-year-old girl and an 80-year-old woman

Mr. Purkey, of Lansing, Kan., kidnapped a 16-year-old girl, raped her repeatedly and, after killing her, dismembered and burned her body.

The Kansas City Star reported last year that the girl’s murder in 1998 was nearly forgotten until one of her childhood friends contacted a true crime podcast, which featured her in an episode.

Mr. Purkey was sentenced to death for the crime of kidnapping a child resulting in the child’s death, according to the Justice Department.

Months before that murder, Mr. Purkey had used a hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who suffered from polio. It was after he was convicted of that slaying in state court that he began talking about killing the teenager, and eventually confessed, although he retracted his admission once prosecutors sought the death penalty, according to The Star.

His execution is scheduled for Dec. 13.

Daniel Lee, 46, who wanted to create a white republic

Daniel Lee, a white supremacist who lived in Oklahoma, was convicted in 1999 of killing an Arkansas gun dealer, as well as the gun dealer’s wife and 8-year-old daughter.

Mr. Lee broke into the family’s home in Tilly, Ark., in January 1996 with an accomplice, Chevie Kehoe, and together they suffocated the family before throwing them into the Illinois Bayou, according to the Justice Department. The bodies were not found until June, when a woman who was fishing discovered a shoe and a bone.

Mr. Lee is known as “Cyclops” because he lost an eye in a bar fight, according to a New York Times story about the murders in 1999. His execution has been scheduled for Dec. 9.

Alfred Bourgeois, 55, who tortured and killed his daughter

Mr. Bourgeois, of La Place, La., was sentenced to death in 2004 after he was convicted of murdering his 2-year-old daughter.

At his trial, eight people who knew Mr. Bourgeois, including family members, said they had been threatened or assaulted by him, according to The Plainview Daily Herald in Texas. They said he had tortured and repeatedly beaten his daughter in the months before killing her in 2002.

The Daily Herald reported that Mr. Bourgeois had staged a fall in a parking lot, and that the child died hours later. Mr. Bourgeois was arrested after an autopsy found more than 300 injuries that were not consistent with a fall.

Of the five men whom the Justice Department said it wanted to execute, Mr. Bourgeois is the only one who is black, even though the federal death row is composed of a disproportionate number of black men, making it the subject of criticism. The Justice Department is seeking to execute Mr. Bourgeois on Jan. 13.

Dustin Honken, 51, convicted of killing five people, including two children

Mr. Honken, of Mason City, Iowa, killed five people in 1993 with the help of his girlfriend, who was once one of only two women on federal death row.

Mr. Honken, described as the kingpin of a methamphetamine operation, fatally shot two fellow drug dealers, as well as a girlfriend of one of the men and the daughters, ages 6 and 10, of the other. The Justice Department said the two men had planned to testify against him.

Iowa does not have the death penalty, but Mr. Honken was charged with federal crimes, meaning he can still be executed by the federal government. His execution is scheduled for Jan. 15.