by Kent Scheidegger · Jul 16, 2020 8:02 am
AP reports:
Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Purkey had been convicted of kidnapping and killing a 16-year-old girl, Jennifer Long, before dismembering, burning and dumping her body in a septic pond. He also was convicted in a state court in Kansas after using a claw hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who had polio.
by Bill Otis · Jul 16, 2020 1:14 am
The Court’s order dissolving Judge Chutkan’s attempt once more to frustrate justice with infinite delay is here. Kent correctly predicted several hours ago that Chutkan was “plow[ing] right into reversal number three.”
I’m not especially an optimist, but there may be reason to hope that the Supreme Court is starting to show long overdue impatience with what Justice Alito correctly called abolitionists’ “guerilla war against the death penalty.” Endless last-minute stunts, newly discovered brain lesions, sudden devotion to religion — all the usual maneuvers out of the game-the-system playbook might have worn out their welcome.
And thank you to President Trump and Leader McConnell for Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh, both essential votes in the majority. The Court’s four more liberal members again dissented.
by Kent Scheidegger · Jul 15, 2020 1:30 pm
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, twice reversed for halting federal executions, has halted them yet again. Her 18 page opinion finds a probability of success on one claim, based on the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and she concludes without analysis of any depth that the public interest in having this claim litigated outweighs the interest of justice in carrying out very long overdue sentences for heinous crimes.
by Kent Scheidegger · Jul 14, 2020 8:38 am
by Kent Scheidegger · Jul 13, 2020 4:13 pm
The appeal in the Eighth Amendment challenge to the federal exection protocol is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in case No. 20-5199, In the Matter of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Execution Protocol Cases: Roane v. Barr. See Mike’s post this morning. In her ruling, Judge Chutkan states, “The last-minute nature of this ruling is unfortunate, but no fault of the Plaintiffs.” She is partly correct in that, if in little else. The last-minute nature of the ruling is primarily the fault of Judge Chutkan herself. The Court of Appeals should not only vacate the stay, it should boot her off the case.
by Katherine.Stiplosek · Jul 10, 2020 12:57 pm
After nearly 2 decades of postponement, white supremacist Daniel Lewis Lee is scheduled to be executed on Monday. As reported in the Washington Free Beacon, this will be the first Federal execution in 17 years. Should it proceed as planned, Lee’s execution will mark the culmination of continued efforts by Attorney General William Barr to restart the death penalty.
Lee is facing the death penalty for the 1996 murder of the Mueller family, including husband and wife William and Nancy Mueller, and their eight-year-old daughter, Sarah. Lee, and his accomplice Chevie Kehoe were members of a white supremacist group that envisioned the a white ethnostate as the future of the US, supporting their cause with the proceeds of their killing spree. The duo suffocated William and Nancy before torturing and murdering their daughter, later dumping the bodies in a bayou and joking the family was now on a “liquid diet”.
by Kent Scheidegger · Jul 9, 2020 3:22 pm
Texas resumed executions yesterday after a 5-month hiatus that was due in part to Covid-19 and in part to flaps over whether clergymen would be allowed in the execution chamber. Juan Lozano and Michael Graczyk report for AP:
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas inmate received lethal injection Wednesday evening for fatally shooting an 82-year-old man nearly three decades ago, ending a five-month delay of executions in the nation’s busiest death penalty state because of the coronavirus pandemic.
by Katherine.Stiplosek · Jun 29, 2020 12:07 pm
After the Supreme Court refused to take up a case challenging the federal government’s new execution protocol, as noted in Kent’s post below, federal executions are set to resume in July.
by Kent Scheidegger · Jun 29, 2020 10:07 am
The U.S. Supreme Court today turned down the federal execution protocol case, apparently on a 7-2 vote. The orders list is here. See page 6. See this post from June 18. The order notes, “Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor would grant the application and the petition for a writ of certiorari.”
by Kent Scheidegger · Jun 18, 2020 5:07 pm
In the on-going litigation over the federal execution protocol, the U.S. Supreme Court today granted the murderers’ motion to fast-track the briefing on whether the high court should take the case up. The government did not oppose the motion.
The government’s response is due tomorrow, as are any amicus curiae briefs. The murderers’ reply is due Monday. That would allow the Court to consider the case at its conference next Thursday.
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