CHICAGO (AP) — Lawyers trying to halt this week's federal execution of their client say an autopsy on an inmate put to death by a lethal injection last month shows he suffered “extreme pain” before he died. The claim in recent filings that Wesley Purkey may have felt a sensation akin to drowning while immobilized but conscious is disputed by Department of Justice attorneys. They say Purkey's and two other federal executions last moth in Terre Haute, Indiana, were carried out without a hitch. A Michigan-based pathologist carried out the Purkey autopsy at his family's request.
As the Navajo man sits on federal death row awaiting his upcoming execution date, his tribe is asking officials to spare his life. The stance in support of Lezmond Mitchell is pushing up against the desires of some of the victims' family to see the Wednesday execution move forward. Mitchell was convicted in the grisly slayings of a fellow tribal member and her granddaughter in 2001 on the Navajo Nation. He is among a handful of inmates whose executions were announced after a 17-year, informal moratorium with a common thread of crimes against children. Mitchell is the only Native American on federal death row.
