The US federal government will resume executions of death-row inmates after a 16-year hiatus.
While prosecutors have continued to seek the death penalty in some cases, the government has not executed an inmate since 2003.
According to the Washington Post, there's been an informal moratorium on executions of federal prisoners while officials reviewed lethal injection procedures.
However, executions have now been scheduled for five death-row inmates convicted of murdering children or elderly people.
Officials say the five men - who were sentenced to death between 1999 and 2004 - have "exhausted their appellate and post-conviction remedies", and their executions will now take place in Indiana in December and January.
US Attorney General William Barr said that the US Congress has "expressly authorised" the death penalty.
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."
The new decision applies only to federal prisoners, and a number of US states have continued executions in the years since 2003.
More than 2,600 people are on death row in the US, including around 60 federal prisoners.
