The headlines make for bleak reading. For the first time in 16 years, the US government is set to resume the use of the death penalty.

Even as you’re likely experiencing feelings of profound anger, sorrow and disgust, you might also be hoping that depraved policy, which was reinstated yesterday, might well be overturned in the time it takes to give inmates their last rites. There you would be mistaken, because the US justice department hasn’t wasted a second in scheduling the execution of five death row federal inmates for December and January.

In an official statement announcing the news, Attorney General William P. Barr pinned his colours firmly to the mast.

“Congress has expressly authorised the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people’s representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President,” he said. “Under Administrations of both parties, the Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals, including these five murderers, each of whom was convicted by a jury of his peers after a full and fair proceeding. 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.”

“Reinstating the death penalty exposes the hypocrisy of the pro-life US government”