The only Indians on federal death penalty were executed Wednesday night for the murder of two women in 2001, according to the Department of Justice. Lezmond Mitchell had no last words before being executed for witnesses who included members of his victims’ surviving family, simply responding, “No, I’m fine.”
He was pronounced dead at 6:29 p.m., less than half an hour after being injected with the deadly drug pentobarbital.
Mitchell was convicted in 2003 of several charges, including the heinous murders of 63-year-old Alyce Slim and her nine-year-old grandmother Tiffany Lee.
Slim was hit 33 times by Mitchell and his maker after giving the couple a ride in October 2001. The couple later played with the child’s throat twice and destroyed their heads with rocks, before tearing down the victims and removing their clothes. burned. Mitchell later focused law enforcement on her bodies after confessing to the gruesome murder.
In a statement released shortly after the execution, Justice spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said, “Almost 19 years after Lezmond Mitchell brutally ended the lives of two people, destroying the lives of many others, justice has finally been served.”
Tiffany’s father, Daniel Lee, followed the execution, and minutes later he stood in tears next to a lawyer who read a statement to journalists in his name.
“I have waited 19 years to get justice for my daughter, Tiffany,” Lee’s statement said. “But I hope this brings some closure.”
Michael Conroy / AP
Mitchell’s execution is the fourth to take place this summer, and three more are scheduled for next month. Like the three men who were killed before him, Mitchell had exhausted all possible objections in an attempt to stop his execution.
That effort came to a head on Wednesday when the Supreme Court denied a last-ditch attempt to postpone his execution, refusing to consider whether or not the jurors at Mitchell’s trial in Arizona should have been interviewed for possible prejudice against Indians. .
Mitchell and his victims were members of the Navajo Nation, and while Lee’s family supported his death sentence, tribal leaders from across the country strongly opposed his execution and called on the president to change his mind.
“Today, the federal government has added another chapter to its long history of injustice against Native American people,” said Jonathan Aminoff and Celeste Bacchi, lawyers for Mitchell. On the firm objection of the Navajo Nation, and despite urgent pleas for guidance from Navajo leaders and many other Indian tribes, organizations, and citizens, the Trump Administration executed Lezmond Mitchell, a Navajo man, for a crime against other Navajo men. “People started on Navajo land.”
The decision to restart the execution of those sentences came after a 17-year-old froze on the federal death penalty. Attorney General William Barr announced the decision last year, saying in a statement at the time: “The Justice Department upholds the rule of law – and we owe it to the victims and their families for the punishment. by implementing our justice system. “
“If it were not for the Trump administration,” Lee’s statement said, “I do not think I would have ever received justice or a sense of finality.”
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