U.S. Supreme Court allows federal executions to proceed
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[July 14, 2020]
By Shubham Kalia and Jonathan Allen
(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on
Tuesday that the first federal executions in 17 years could proceed,
overturning an injunction blocking them in order to allow legal
challenges to the government's lethal-injection protocol to continue.
Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. district court in Washington had on
Monday ordered the justice department to delay four executions scheduled
for July and August.
Chutkan's order was issued less than seven hours before the execution of
Daniel Lee was due to take place in Terre Haute, Indiana. The order was
later affirmed by a U.S. appeals court.
"The plaintiffs in this case have not made the showing required to
justify last-minute intervention by a Federal Court. Last-minute stays
like that issued this morning should be the extreme exception, not the
norm," the Supreme Court said.
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"The government has produced competing expert testimony of its own,
indicating that any pulmonary edema occurs only after the prisoner has
died or been rendered fully insensate," the court added.
The authorities were prepared to move forward with Lee's execution at 4
am EDT (0800 GMT) on Tuesday after the Supreme Court's decision,
documents filed in the district court in Washington by Lee's lawyers
showed.
"In light of the imminent and irreparable harm that he faces, Lee
respectfully requests that the court immediately issue a ruling on his
pending supplemental claim and motion for preliminary injunction," his
lawyers said.
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Indiana State Troopers block a road leading to the Federal
Correctional Institution, Terre Haute, as officials await word about
the stay of execution issued for Daniel Lewis Lee, who is convicted
in the killing of three members of an Arkansas family in 1996, and
would be the first federal execution in 17 years at the United
States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S. July 13, 2020.
REUTERS/Bryan Woolston
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Reuters could not verify if the execution took place at 4 am EDT.
The U.S. justice department did not immediately respond to requests
for comment.
Attorney General William Barr had announced last July that the
Justice Department would resume carrying out executions of some of
the 62 inmates on federal death row.
He originally scheduled five executions for last December, but was
ordered to delay them by Chutkan while long-running lawsuits
challenging the government's lethal-injection protocol played out.
An appeals court overturned that injunction in April, and Barr
announced new execution dates for July and August of four inmates,
all men convicted of murdering children: Lee, Wesley Purkey, Dustin
Honken and Keith Nelson.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York and Shubham Kalia in
Bengaluru; Editing by Michael Perry and Ed Osmond)
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