NEW:
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — The U.S. government has put to death an Iowa chemistry student-turned-meth kingpin convicted of killing two children and three adults. It is the third execution by the federal government in one week after a hiatus of nearly 20 years. Dustin Honken, who prosecutors said killed key witnesses to stop them from testifying in his drugs case, received a lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Two others were also put to death this week: Kansan Wesley Purkey and Oklahoman Daniel Lewis Lee.
ORIGINAL POST:
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa meth kingpin who kidnapped and killed five people, including two young girls, to thwart his prosecution for drug trafficking in 1993 is set to become the third federal inmate to be executed this week. Fifty-two-year-old Dustin Honken would become the first defendant from Iowa to die from capital punishment since 1963 if his lethal injection takes place as scheduled on Friday in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he has been on death row since 2005. Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965, but federal prosecutors sought that punishment against Honken because of the horrific nature of his crimes. This week's federal executions have been the first in 17 years.
