The Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted another injunction on the Trump administration’s swift push to resume federal death sentences this week.
A divided court lifted one of the few injunctions that temporarily block the execution of a man whose lawyers say he suffers from severe dementia.
The vote was 5-4 with the liberal judges. Stephen BreyerStephen Breyer Hill Report at 12:30 pm – Submitted by Facebook – Supreme Court allows federal executions in 2 am decision First federal prisoner in 17 years executed hours after Supreme Court decision The Supreme Court clears the way for federal executions MORE, Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Ginsburg hospitalized with possible infection The Hill’s 12:30 Report – Presented by Facebook – The Supreme Court allows federal executions in the 2 o’clock decision First federal prisoner in 17 years executed hours after the Supreme Court decision PLUS, Elena Kagan
Elena Kagan 12:30 Hill Report – Submitted by Facebook – Supreme Court allows federal executions at 2 a.m. decision First federal prisoner in 17 years executed hours after Supreme Court decision The Supreme Court clear the way for federal executions MORE and Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Sotomayor The Hill’s Report 12:30 pm – Submitted by Facebook – Supreme Court allows federal executions at 2 am decision First federal prisoner in 17 years executed hours after Supreme Court decision The Supreme Court clears the way for federal executions MORE – dissident. The order lifts a court order from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals that has been in effect for weeks.
Just hours before Wesley Ira Purkey was executed Wednesday afternoon, a federal judge in DC also ordered two court orders against the death sentence.
The Justice Department filed emergency petitions with the Supreme Court asking judges to also raise them.
The expedited appeals process also took place earlier this week when the Supreme Court lifted court orders on another death row inmate named Daniel Lewis Lee at 2 am Tuesday morning. A few hours later, Lee became the first prisoner to be executed by the federal government since 2003.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, the DC judge who has been imposing the mandates this week, said in a decision on Wednesday that the government’s rush to move ahead with executions is partly to blame for the 11-hour legal maneuvers.
“The speed with which the government seeks to carry out these executions, and the Supreme Court’s prioritization of that pace over the additional legal process, makes it much more likely that last minute precautionary measures will be issued, despite Plaintiffs’ attorney’s efforts to increase, and the court to judge, the claims in a timely manner, “said Chutkan, who was appointed to the district court by former President Obama.
The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to order Chutkan not to issue any more last-minute orders in death penalty cases, one of which questions the legality of the administration’s new execution protocol involving the injection. of the pentobarbital medicine.
Purkey’s lawyers say the inmate, who was convicted of the kidnapping and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1998, is not mentally fit to be executed.
“Wes Purkey is a 68-year-old man with severe brain damage and mental illness suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s disease and dementia,” Rebecca Woodman, one of her lawyers, said in a statement Wednesday. “Although he has accepted responsibility for his crime, he no longer has a rational understanding of why the government plans to execute him. By suspending Wes’s execution, the court action points to the importance of allowing him to present the extensive medical evidence available that demonstrates his incompetence to be executed. “
– John Kruzel contributed
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