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THE LATEST: U.S. Executes 2nd Man In A Week; Lawyers Said He Had Dementia

(Kansas Department of Corrections via AP)

 

NEW:

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — The United States has carried out its second federal execution this week, killing by lethal injection a Kansas man whose lawyers contended he had dementia and was unfit to be executed. Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death Thursday at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Purkey was convicted of kidnapping and killing a girl in Missouri before dismembering her body. He expressed remorse right before he was executed, saying he regretted the "pain and suffering" he caused. The Supreme Court cleared the way for Purkey's execution to take place just hours before. Another man, Daniel Lewis Lee, was put to death Tuesday, ending a 17-year hiatus on federal executions.

 
PREVIOUS POST:

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — A U.S. judge has halted the execution of a federal death row inmate whose lawyers argue suffers from dementia. Wesley Ira Purkey was slated to be the second inmate executed by the government after a nearly 20-year hiatus ended this week. But a judge in Washington, D.C., imposed two injunctions Wednesday. The Justice Department is appealing in both cases. Purkey's lawyers say he can no longer grasp why he’s slated to die. Purkey, of Lansing, Kansas, was convicted of the 1998 killing of a girl in Kansas City, Missouri, and was scheduled for execution at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. Another man, Daniel Lewis Lee, was put to death there Tuesday. 

ORIGINAL POST;

CHICAGO (AP) — Legal experts say the man next on the list to be executed by the federal government after a nearly 20-year hiatus ended this week may have a better chance of avoiding lethal injection. That's because Wesley Ira Purkey suffers from dementia. His lawyers say he can no longer grasp why he’s slated to die. Purkey was convicted of a 1998 killing and is scheduled for execution Wednesday at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. That's where Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death Tuesday. Lee was convicted of killing an Arkansas family in a 1990s plot to build a whites-only nation. He was the first of four condemned men scheduled to die this summer.

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