The American Civil Liberties Union has teamed up with a law firm to sue Attorney General William Barr and other federal officials to delay a federal execution that will take place later this month, alleging it is unsafe due to the coronavirus.
The execution is the second of four that the government has scheduled for this summer and that, according to the ACLU, could become “overcast events,” according to the ACLU.
The plaintiffs hope to postpone the federal execution of Wesley Purkey, scheduled for July 15, arguing that Purkey’s witness and spiritual minister, the Rev. Seigen Hartkemeyer, a 68-year-old Buddhist priest with lung diseases, would be exposed. the virus if he attended the execution in an Indiana prison. The lawsuit argues that forcing the Rev. Hartkemeyer to risk his health to perform his religious duties violates the Restoration of Religious Liberty Act.
“Trump officials claim to uphold religious freedom but, once again, have no qualms about trampling on those rights when it is in line with their political agenda,” said Heather L. Weaver, lead attorney for the Freedom of Religion and Belief Program of the ACLU, according to an ACLU press release. “There is no reason to resume federal executions during a pandemic, especially when it would prevent a priest from fulfilling her religious commitments to a man about to lose her life.”
Purkey was sentenced to death in 2003 after being convicted of killing a girl, raping her, and dismembering her body. Purkey was also convicted at the state level for using a claw hammer to beat to death an 80-year-old woman who suffered from polio and walked with a cane, according to the Justice Department.
Litigation over the method of federal executions has delayed the four executions that were originally scheduled for December 2019. Last November, a judge initially stopped executions because of the method in which the federal government planned to carry out executions. The lower court judge had a particular problem with the drug combination the government used.
That was overturned by a higher court and on Monday, the Supreme Court rejected the request to stop the execution of Purkey and three others, launching the first federal executions in 17 years. During the 17-year recess, executions continued to take place at the state level, but in 2014, then-President Barack Obama ordered the Justice Department to review how the death penalty is applied after a failed execution in a state prison in Oklahoma.
According to the ACLU, the Supreme Court has addressed the issue of allowing spiritual leaders on executions last year. In 2019, the Supreme Court issued a suspension in the case of Patrick Murphy, a Texas inmate who was sentenced to death. The court said Murphy should not be executed unless a “Buddhist spiritual advisor or other Buddhist reverend of the state’s choice to accompany Murphy in the execution chamber during the execution.”
Similarly, the Supreme Court issued a suspension earlier this month in the Rubén Gutiérrez case. Gutiérrez, who was sentenced to death for killing an elderly woman, claimed that his religious rights were violated when Texas did not allow spiritual advisers in the execution chamber. But the judges did allow the execution of Domineque Ray in February 2019, despite the fact that he was a Muslim prisoner in Alabama, where the government only allowed a Christian chaplain in the chamber of execution.
The Rev. Hartkemeyer states that it is his obligation to be by Purkey’s side when he is killed.
“It is vital that you be there, as a priest of Wes, to ensure this peaceful transition from life to death during your worst moment of anguish, your final crisis, as you sit on the threshold of death. I will sing from behind a Plexiglass barrier to ensure your peace of mind as you pass by, and through my physical presence serve as a spiritual reminder to Wes of all the religious lessons I have taught him as he passes through this life. This is my sacred duty, “he wrote. the reverend hartkemeyer in a blog post
Dr. Simone Wildes, an infectious disease physician at South Shore Health, said there is no reason to perform an execution during a pandemic, given the health risks.
“In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic with an increasing number of cases in several states, an execution is not a medical emergency, especially given the fact that there has not been an execution in 17 years in Indiana,” said Wildes, a collaborator. from ABC News. . “You don’t have to put people at risk for coronaviruses to witness an execution. It would be better to wait until the number of cases is better controlled across state lines or even when there is a vaccine and definitive treatment available.”
Wildes says that because this is the first time that prisons will accept visitors, the protocols in place will be tested.
But Barr has said that the crimes committed by the four men slated for federal execution this summer are “heinous” and that “the American people, acting through Congress and the presidents of both political parties, have long instructed that the accused Convicted of the most heinous crimes must be subject to a death sentence. “
“The four murderers whose executions are scheduled … have received full and fair procedures under our Constitution and laws,” he said. “We owe it to the victims of these horrible crimes, and to the families left behind, to carry out the sentence imposed by our justice system.”
ABC News did not receive an immediate comment on the Justice Department lawsuit.
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