On Thursday, the United States Supreme Court paved the way for the second federal execution this week, allowing a man convicted of raping and killing a 16-year-old girl to die by lethal injection.
Wesley Ira Purkey, 68, was executed at 8:19 a.m. at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, for the murder of Jennifer Long in 1998.
He confessed to killing Long while he was in jail awaiting trial for using a hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman, admitting that he kidnapped the sophomore sophomore and then raped and killed her, leaving her body burned. and dismembered in a septic tank.
Purkey expressed remorse for the murder while tied to a gurney inside the execution chamber.
“I deeply regret the pain and suffering that I caused to Jennifer’s family. I’m so sorry, “he said.
Long’s father, William, attended the execution.
“I hope it rots in hell,” he said.
The judges ruled 5-4 to allow Purkey’s execution to proceed, with the liberal wing of the breakaway court.
“Continuing to execute Purkey now, despite serious questions and factual findings about his mental competence, casts a cloak of constitutional doubt about the most irrevocable injuries.”
Judge Sonia Sotomayor wrote, along with justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan.
Purkey’s lawyers said he suffered from dementia and was not fit to be executed, arguing that his condition had worsened so dramatically that he did not understand why he was being executed.
Daniel Lee Lewis, who was convicted of killing a family of three, was executed at the same prison facility on Tuesday, the first federal execution in 17 years.
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