A former white supremacist who killed a family of three, Lee was scheduled to be executed Monday in what would have been the first federal execution in 17 years. On Monday, a federal judge blocked the planned execution of Lee and three others, citing current challenges to the federal government’s lethal injection protocol.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Circuit of the District of Columbia rejected on Monday night the request of the Department of Justice to suspend the mandate. The Justice Department had appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court said that death row prisoners, including Lee, who presented the case “have not established that they are likely to succeed” in their defiance, in part because of the government’s only proposed drug protocol – single dose of pentobarbital. – has become a “pillar” of state executions. “
Judge Stephen Breyer, accompanied by Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a dissenting statement reiterated something he said earlier: He believes it is time for the court to review the constitutionality of the death penalty.
“The resumption of federal executions promises to provide examples that illustrate the difficulties of administering the death penalty under the Constitution,” he said.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor, along with Judge Elena Kagan and Ginsburg, wrote separately to criticize the “accelerated decision making” of the court.
“The court forever deprives respondents of their ability to press a constitutional challenge to their lethal injections,” he said.
Three other appeals seeking to delay execution are also pending in the Supreme Court. One refers to the family of Lee’s victims who are concerned about traveling and going to federal prison during the coronavirus pandemic. A second concerns the evidence presented by prosecutors during their sentencing hearing.
In 2019, Attorney General William Barr moved to reinstate the federal death penalty after a span of nearly two decades.
Barr ordered the Bureau of Prisons to move forward with the executions of some “death row prisoners convicted of murder and, in some cases, torture and rape, the most vulnerable in our society: children and the elderly.” The scheduled executions rekindled legal challenges to the specific protocol used in executions and revitalized a debate on the constitutionality of the lethal injection.
Earlene Peterson, whose daughter, granddaughter, and son-in-law were tortured, killed, and thrown into a lake by Lee and an accomplice, has opposed Lee’s execution and told CNN last year that he did not want it done on his behalf.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
CNN’s Joe Sutton and Daniel Allman contributed to this report.
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