Wednesday, December 21, 2005 · Last updated 9:32 a.m. PT

3 federal executions planned for May 8-12

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Three men convicted of killing nine people in federal drug-related crimes in Virginia have been scheduled to be executed during the same week in May, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said Wednesday.

Richard Tipton was scheduled to be executed by injection on May 8, Cory Johnson on May 10, and James H. Roane, Jr., on May 12, the bureau said.

If all three are carried out, it would be the most in one week since the federal government resumed executions in 2001. The Terre Haute prison is the only place in the nation housing federal death row inmates and the only place where they are executed.

The three men were co-defendants in a large drug-trafficking organization, and a federal jury found them guilty in February 1993 of murder as part of a criminal enterprise, the bureau said.

U.S. District Judge James P. Spencer of the Eastern District of Virginia, imposed the death sentence, which the jury recommended for each defendant.

Since the federal government resumed executions following a 38-year cessation, three men, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, have been put to death by injection at Terre Haute.