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Wesley Purkey Federal Execution

Wesley Purkey was executed by the Federal Government for the kidnapping and murder of sixteen year old Jennifer Long in Kansas City. According to court documents Wesley Purkey would kidnap the sixteen year old girl (picture on the right above) would be murdered, dismembered and set on fire. Wesley Purkey would beat to death an elderly woman with a hammer. Purkey would be executed on July 16, 2020 by lethal injection

Wesley Purkey More News

In its second execution this week following a 17-year pause, the U.S. government on Thursday executed Wesley Purkey, a Kansas man who admitted to killing a Kansas City teenager in 1998.

Purkey, 68, was put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. His attorneys had argued he was mentally unfit for execution because he suffered from dementia.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied his application to stay the execution hours before he was put to death.

The Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution ruling in a 5-4 decision. The four liberal justices dissented.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that “proceeding with Purkey’s execution now, despite the grave questions and factual findings regarding his mental competency, casts a shroud of constitutional doubt over the most irrevocable of injuries.” She was joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.

In 2003, Purkey was convicted in the kidnapping and killing of 16-year-old Jennifer Long in Kansas City. Purkey had dismembered her, burned the body and dumped it in a septic pond.

He was also convicted in Wyandotte County of murdering Mary Ruth Bales, 80, of Kansas City, Kansas. She was killed with a hammer.

Purkey expressed remorse in his final statement.

“I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer’s family,” he said. “I am deeply sorry. I deeply regret the pain I caused to my daughter, who I love so very much. This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever.”

His time of death was 8:19 a.m. EDT.

Following Purkey’s execution, Jennifer’s father, William Long, told reporters that he will never have closure because his daughter is gone.

“We took care of today what we needed to take care of,” Long said, according to a video from the Indianapolis Star. “It’s’ been a long time coming. He needed to take his last breath. He took my daughter’s last breath.”

On Wednesday, a federal judge had issued a preliminary injunction that challenged Purkey’s mental competency to be executed, as he suffers from advanced Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, schizophrenia and brain damage. Purkey, his attorneys have said, did not understand why the government wanted to put him to death.

In a statement Wednesday evening, Purkey’s attorney said they recently learned the government appeared to have had “scientific confirmation in their possession of significant structural abnormalities” in Purkey’s brain that were “consistent with cognitive impairment such as vascular dementia or other conditions.”

In a post on Twitter, Sister Helen Prejean, a death penalty opponent, said each government attorney involved in “this egregious prosecutorial misconduct should be sanctioned.”

Cassandra Stubbs, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Capital Punishment Project, released a statement Thursday saying Purkey’s execution “marks a truly dark period for our country.”

“After a rushed and truncated review, the courts abandoned the constitutional prohibition on executing people who lack rational understanding of the reason for their execution in order to allow the government to proceed with the shameful execution of Wes Purkey, despite his pending competency appeal,” Stubbs wrote.

“There was no reason for this administration to restart federal executions now — after a nearly two-decade hiatus, during the worst public health crisis of our lifetime — except to distract from its many failings, particularly its failure to keep people safe during this pandemic,” Stubbs said.

Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, also noted that Purkey was executed hours after the legal warrant for his execution expired.

He said the federal government’s decision to proceed with administering a lethal injection to Purkey hours after the most recent attempt to stay his execution was struck down was “extremely disturbing.”

According to federal regulations, if an execution date passes, then the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons will set a new date as soon as the stay is lifted. But this should be done at least seven days before the new execution date, Dunham said.

“To say to somebody who is in the execution chamber, ‘good morning, we’re going to execute you now,’ is not acceptable legal notice,” he said, adding that due process requires Purkey and his attorneys be given time to respond.

“It’s behavior we haven’t seen before from any administration, Republican or Democratic,” Dunham added.

In many states, when a death warrant expires, the prisoner goes back to his cell and the witnesses go home, he said. Then the process of selecting a new date and selecting witnesses begins again.

Last month, the U.S. Justice Department set the execution dates for Purkey and three other federal death row inmates, the first to be carried out by the federal government in nearly 20 years.

An Aug. 28 execution date has been set for Keith D. Nelson, who kidnapped, raped and killed a 10-year-old Kansas City, Kansas, girl in 1999.

Daniel Lewis Lee, the first man executed this week, also saw the path cleared for his execution by a 5-4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, with the liberals dissenting as in Purkey’s case.

On Tuesday, Lee was executed by lethal injection. He had been convicted in Arkansas of killing a family of three.

The execution date for the remaining death row inmate, Dustin Lee Honken, has been set for Friday in Terre Haute. Honken was convicted of killing five people in Iowa, including two children.

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article244259352.html

Daniel Lee Federal Execution

Daniel Lee was the first person to be executed by the Federal Government in 17 years. Daniel Lee would be sentenced to death for murdering a family of three who were tortured, killed and thrown into a lake. Daniel Lee codefendent Chevie Kehoe was sentenced to multiple life without parole sentences. Lee would be executed on July 14, 2020.

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Daniel Lewis Lee, a convicted killer, was executed Tuesday morning in the first federal execution in 17 years after the Supreme Court issued an overnight ruling that it could proceed.

Lee was pronounced dead by the coroner at 8:07 a.m. ET in Terre Haute, Indiana. His last words were “I didn’t do it. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life but I’m not a murderer. You’re killing an innocent man,” according to a pool report.

The Supreme Court cleared the way for the resumption of the federal death penalty in an unsigned order released after 2 a.m. ET Tuesday.

The court wiped away a lower court order temporarily blocking the execution of Lee in a 5-4 vote.

Lee, a one-time white supremacist who killed a family of three, was scheduled to be executed Monday. A federal judge blocked the planned execution of Lee, and three others, citing ongoing challenges to the federal government’s lethal injection protocol.

Ruth Friedman, Lee’s attorney, said in a statement Tuesday, “It is shameful that the government saw fit to carry out this execution during a pandemic.”

“It is shameful that the government saw fit to carry out this execution when counsel for Danny Lee could not be present with him, and when the judges in his case and even the family of his victims urged against it,” Friedman said. “And it is beyond shameful that the government, in the end, carried out this execution in haste, in the middle of the night, while the country was sleeping. We hope that upon awakening, the country will be as outraged as we are.”

An appeal seeking to delay the execution that involved family of Lee’s victims who were concerned about traveling and going to a federal prison during the coronavirus pandemic was also denied by the Supreme Court in an order Tuesday morning.

Earlene Peterson — whose daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law were tortured, killed and dumped in a lake by Lee and an accomplice — has opposed Lee’s execution, telling CNN last year that she did not want it done in her name.

Baker Kurrus, an attorney for the victims’ family, told CNN Tuesday morning the family is “heartbroken” and said “the government prevented them from being there and family did everything they could to be there.”

The Supreme Court said in its ruling that the death row inmates, including Lee, bringing the case “have not established that they are likely to succeed” in their challenge in part because the one drug protocol proposed by the government — single dose pentobarbital — has become a ‘mainstay’ of state executions.”

Attorney General William Barr said Lee “finally faced the justice he deserved.”

“The American people have made the considered choice to permit capital punishment for the most egregious federal crimes, and justice was done today in implementing the sentence for Lee’s horrific offenses,” Barr said in a statement.

Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, reiterated in one dissent something he has said before: he thinks it’s time for the court to revisit the constitutionality of the death penalty.

“The resumption of federal executions promises to provide examples that illustrate the difficulties of administering the death penalty consistent with the Constitution,” he said.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Elena Kagan and Ginsburg, wrote separately to criticize the court’s “accelerated decision making “

“The court forever deprives respondents of their ability to press a constitutional challenge to their lethal injections,” she said.

In 2019, Barr moved to reinstate the federal death penalty after a nearly two decade lapse.

Barr directed the Bureau of Prisons to move forward with executions of some “death-row inmates convicted of murdering, and in some cases torturing and raping, the most vulnerable in our society — children and the elderly.” The scheduled executions reignited legal challenges to the specific protocol used in executions and reinvigorated a debate concerning the constitutionality of lethal injection.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/11/us/death-penalty-family-plea-daniel-lewis-lee/index.html

Dustin Higgs Federal Execution

Dustin Higgs was executed by the Federal Government for a series of murders. According to court documents Dustin Higgs was convicted of the kidnapping and murders of three women in 1996. Since his arrest Dustin Higgs has maintained his innocence. Dustin Higgs would be executed by lethal injection on January 16, 2001

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Dustin John Higgs was executed in the early hours of Saturday morning becoming the 13th and last federal death row inmate to be executed since the Justice Department restarted federal executions in July 2019. He had been convicted of kidnapping and murdering three women in 1996.Higgs maintained his innocence until his death, according to a pool report.The tone of his voice was calm but defiant as he said his last words, “I’d like to say I am an innocent man,” he said, mentioning the three women by name. “I did not order the murders,” the report said.Higgs’ victims were Tamika Black, 19; Tanji Jackson, 21; and Mishann Chinn, 23.Higgs’ execution went forward despite his attorney, Shawn Nolan’s appeal to delay the proceeding because of Higgs’ Covid-19 diagnosis. Nolan also argued that Higgs was unfairly sentenced, since the actual gunman is serving a life sentence.

Higgs’ execution was initially scheduled for the 92nd birthday of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.King’s oldest son, Martin Luther King III, wrote an op-ed on Thursday in The Washington Post calling for the end to executions by invoking his father’s words from 1957 when asked if God approves of the death penalty. “I do not think that God approves the death penalty for any crime … capital punishment is against the better judgment of modern criminology and, above all, against the highest expression of love in the nature of God,” King said.

In January 1996, Higgs and two friends drove to Washington, DC, to pick up Black, Jackson, and Chinn, whom Higgs had invited to his apartment in Laurel, Maryland, according to a Department of Justice statement. At the apartment, Jackson rebuffed an advance by Higgs and the women left. Higgs offered the women a ride back to DC, but instead drove to a secluded area in the Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge, the statement added.He ordered the women out of the vehicle, gave a gun to one of the friends, and said, “better make sure they’re dead.” The other man shot Black and Jackson in the chest and back, and shot Chinn in the back of the head, killing all three women, the statement said.

In 2000, a Maryland jury found Higgs guilty of numerous federal offenses, including three counts of first-degree premeditated murder, three counts of first-degree felony murder, and three counts of kidnapping resulting in death, and unanimously recommended nine death sentences, which the court imposed, the statement said.Higgs’ convictions and sentences were affirmed on appeal nearly 17 years ago, and his initial round of collateral challenges failed nearly eight years ago, the statement added.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/16/us/dustin-higgs-executed/index.html

Dustin Higgs Execution Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXNNY97j-uk

Corey Johnson Federal Execution

Corey Johnson was executed by the Federal Government for a series of murders in Virginia. According to court documents Corey Johnson would commit a total of seven murders in Richmond Virginia in order to further his hold on drug trafficking in the city. Corey Johnson whose intelligence was considered to be borderline and was fighting COVID 19 at the time of his execution was put to death by lethal injection.

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Corey Johnson was executed by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, and was pronounced dead at 11:34 p.m. ET on Thursday.Johnson was sentenced to die after he was convicted of killing seven people in 1992 as a part of the drug trade in Virginia. The weeks preceding his execution were defined by a tense legal battle after he contracted Covid-19 while on death row.In his final statement, Johnson apologized for his crimes and told the families of the victims that he hoped they would find peace. He also thanked the staff at the prison, the prison’s chaplain, his minister and his legal team.”I would have said I was sorry before, but I didn’t know how. I hope you will find peace,” he said, according to a statement released by his lawyers. “To my family, I have always loved you, and your love has made me real. On the streets, I was looking for shortcuts, I had some good role models, I was side tracking, I was blind and stupid. I am not the same man that I was.”The Supreme Court denied a last-ditch effort late Thursday by Johnson’s legal team that leaned on claims of an intellectual disability and his Covid-19 diagnosis, arguing that his infection paired with a lethal injection would amount to a cruel and unusual punishment.That appeal came after an appellate court on Wednesday tossed out a lower court’s decision to stay the executions of Johnson and another death row inmate who contracted the virus, Dustin Higgs, whose execution is scheduled to take place Friday.”The government must stop trying to execute Corey Johnson while he is still recovering from the COVID-19 infection he contracted as a result of the government’s own irresponsibility in carrying out executions during the pandemic,” Donald Salzman, an attorney for Johnson, had said in a statement earlier Thursday.”There is no principled reason not to wait until the injunction expires in March to assess whether Mr. Johnson’s lungs have healed sufficiently that he will not suffer excruciating pain during an execution.”After Johnson’s death, his legal team mourned his passing in a statement, saying that he should never have been executed.”We loved Corey Johnson, and we knew him as a gentle soul who never broke a rule in prison and kept trying, despite his limitations, to pass the GED. His family and loved ones are in our hearts,” his attorneys said. “We wish also to say that the fact Corey Johnson should never have been executed cannot diminish the pain and loss experienced by the families of the victims in this case. We wish them peace and healing.”Johnson’s legal team has also said that he has an IQ of 69, which would be lower than one standard offered by the Supreme Court as a guide for states weighing whether such an execution met the Constitution’s cruel and unusual punishment standards.”He is a person with intellectual disability who cannot constitutionally be executed,” Salzman argued Thursday morning. “The government should withdraw Corey’s execution date, or President Trump should grant him clemency.”According to the US Justice Department, Johnson and several co-conspirators were partners between 1989 and 1992 in a “large drug-trafficking conspiracy” based in Richmond, Virginia.As part of their operation, the department said, Johnson murdered seven people over “perceived slights or rivalry in the drug trade” — Peyton Johnson, Louis Johnson, Bobby Long, Dorothy Armstrong, Anthony Carter, Linwood Chiles and Curtis Thorne. Johnson said each name in his final statement, saying, “I want these names to be remembered.”Johnson was found guilty of seven counts of capital murder in 1993, with the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia jury unanimously recommending seven death sentences.Thursday’s execution, six days before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, coincides with a new push from more than three dozen members of Congress for Biden’s incoming administration to prioritize abolishing the death penalty in all jurisdictions.While Biden has pledged to abolish the federal death penalty and to give incentives to states to stop seeking death sentences as a part of his criminal justice plan, 40 members of Congress want to make sure the practice ends on his first day in office.As part of his final words, Johnson made mention of his last meal.”The pizza and strawberry shake were wonderful, but I didn’t get the jelly-filled donuts that I ordered,” he said. “What’s with that? This should be fixed.”

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/14/politics/corey-johnson-executed/index.html

Corey Johnson Execution Video

Federal Death Row List Of Inmates

Federal Death Row is located at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute Indiana. It can be applied across all States and Territories yet it is rarely used. All of the executions that have been carried out at USP Terre Haute by lethal injection.

Update 2024 – President Biden would commute the majority of the inmates on Federal Death Row to life in prison. The only three that he did not were Dylann Roof, Robert Bowers and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The rest were resentenced to life in prison without parole