THE LATEST:
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — The U.S. has carried out the first federal execution in nearly two decades, putting to death a man who was convicted of killing an Arkansas family in the 1990s in a plot to build a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest. Forty-seven-year-old Daniel Lewis Lee, of Yukon, Oklahoma, died Tuesday after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Lee said before his execution that he was innocent. His the first death row inmate to be executed since 2003. Lee's execution came over the objection of the victims' family and following a series of legal challenges related to the raging coronavirus pandemic.
EARLIER JULY 14TH:
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — The Trump administration was moving ahead early Tuesday with the execution of the first federal prison inmate in 17 years after a divided Supreme Court reversed lower courts and ruled federal executions could proceed. Daniel Lewis Lee had been scheduled to receive a lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital at 4 p.m. EDT Monday. But a court order preventing Lee’s execution, issued Monday morning by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, remained in place. A federal appeals court in Washington refused the administration’s plea to step in, before the Supreme Court acted by a 5-4 vote. Still, Lee’s lawyers said the execution could not go forward after midnight under federal regulations.
EARLIER POST:
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled that the first federal execution in nearly two decades can proceed as scheduled on Monday. The ruling from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a lower court order that had put the execution of 47-year-old Daniel Lewis Lee on hold. Lee, of Yukon, Oklahoma, had been scheduled to die by lethal injection on Monday at a federal prison in Indiana. He was convicted in Arkansas of the 1996 killings of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell.
The execution will take place at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
PREVIOUS POST:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal Bureau of Prisons said says a staff member involved in preparing for the first federal executions in nearly two decades has tested positive for coronavirus. The Justice Department says the development won't mean an additional delay in the government’s timetable, which has already been stalled by a federal court. The department says the worker hadn't been in the execution chamber and hadn't come into contact with anyone on the specialized team sent to the prison to handle the execution. The bureau made the disclosure in court filings in response to lawsuits that have sought to halt executions scheduled to resume Monday.
ORIGINAL POST:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department plans to appeal a judge’s ruling that would halt the first federal execution in nearly two decades. The halt was ordered after family members of the victims raised concerns they would be at high risk for the coronavirus if they had to travel to attend. They actually oppose the execution and say they wanted to be present to counter any contention that it was happening on their behalf. The Justice Department filed its notice to appeal to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday. A federal judge had ordered that Daniel Lee’s execution must not move forward as scheduled on Monday. Lee, of Yukon, Oklahoma, was convicted in Arkansas of the 1996 killings of a gun dealer, his daughter and her 8-year-old daughter.
