The US Supreme Court early Thursday cleared the way for the second federal execution this week, allowing a man convicted of raping and killing a 16-year-old girl to die by lethal injection.
Wesley Ira Purkey, 68, was put to death at 8:19 a.m. in the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Ind., for the killing of Jennifer Long in 1998.
He confessed to killing Long while he was in jail awaiting trial for using a claw hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman, admitting he kidnapped the high school sophomore and then raped and killed her, leaving her burned and dismembered body in a septic pond.
Purkey expressed remorse for the killing while he was strapped to a gurney inside the execution chamber.
“I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer’s family. I am deeply sorry,” he said.
Long’s father, William, attended the execution.
“I hope he rots in hell,” he said.
The justices ruled 5-4 to allow Purkey’s execution to go forward, with the liberal wing of the court dissenting.
“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,”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.
Purkey’s lawyers said he suffered from dementia and was unfit to be executed, arguing his condition had worsened so dramatically that he didn’t understand why he was being executed.
Daniel Lee Lewis, who was convicted of killing a family of three, was put to death at the same prison facility on Tuesday, the first federal execution in 17 years.
https://nypost.com/2020/07/16/one-hour-hold-is-placed-on-second-federal-execution-this-week/
