“You’re killing an innocent man,” Lee said, looking directly at me. On 11 March 2009, Lopez, then 21, was driving at night in Corpus Christi with his girlfriend, Melanie Saldana, 16, and his ex-girlfriend, Ashley Martinez, in Lopez' Ford Expedition. "I have desired to go, Where springs not fail, To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail, And a few lilies blow. We are one of the world’s fastest growing }); I wondered if I would get the virus. Lee remained strapped on a gurney for four hours after midnight as the Trump administration sought to lift a court-ordered stay on his death sentence. The curtain was shut, but I could hear noises coming from the other side of the wall. Lee’s execution, one of two that I witnessed this past week at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, played out slowly, after painstaking hours of final, futile legal appeals, before prison officials administered a lethal injection and the federal government carried out capital punishment for the first time in almost two decades. Along with other reporters, I was lodged inside a former bowling alley that was now a prison staff training center. Purkey was put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, at 8:19 a.m. local time. He listened, then said, “I understand there are no impediments.”. This time we stopped just outside of the execution chamber. We were all uncomfortable. ET in Terre Haute, Indiana. "The resumption of federal executions promises to provide examples that illustrate the difficulties of administering the death penalty consistent with the Constitution," he said. By midnight, all of us left again for our hotels nearby. A correction officer pulled the large metal door closed and a booming click echoed through the room. Just before his death, Lee reportedly implored to the media at his execution to ask the judge about DNA evidence that was left out of his trial. It was guarded by heavily armed prison officers. "The court forever deprives respondents of their ability to press a constitutional challenge to their lethal injections," she said. We hope that upon awakening, the country will be as outraged as we are.". “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I’m not a murderer. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Purkey, a 68-year-old on death row for rape and murders in 1998, was executed on Thursday, July 16, by lethal injection as the Trump administration carried out its second federal execution. By 10 p.m., the Bureau of Prisons officials offered us peanuts and chips. document.querySelector("#google_image_div").addEventListener('click',function(){ }); Fox News host to Trump: Are you willing to condemn white supremacists. We were locked in. As the trio was executed, they expressed their views for the final time, with one even maintaining his innocence till his last breath. When a correction officer replied it was 6:10 a.m., there was a collective gasp of surprise. Earlene Peterson -- whose daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law were tortured, killed and dumped in a lake by Lee and an accomplice -- has opposed Lee's execution, telling CNN last year that she did not want it done in her name. “I guess so,” I replied. He has covered criminal justice and policing issues since 2014. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), The 68-year-old, who was reportedly suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's, before his execution, said: "I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer’s family. He rested his head back down and the drug quickly did its deadly work. The curtain rose at 7:55 a.m. We were again looking into the execution chamber. }); — Daniel Lewis Lee, a condemned man and convicted murderer, was asked if he wanted to make a final statement from the execution chamber, with its institutional green-tiled walls and plate-glass interior window, moments before he too would die. The Supreme Court cleared the way for the resumption of the federal death penalty in an unsigned order released after 2 a.m. In one week, I had spent more than 32 hours inside a prison. It bothered me somehow, even though we were all there. ga('ads.send', { We were all wearing blue surgical masks. “This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever,” he said. The attorneys of each convict tried to block their clients' executions in last-ditch attempts to save their lives, two of them nearly succeeded only for the Supreme Court to ultimately give the green light to the Trump administration to go ahead. Purkey, from Lansing, Kansas, was given the death sentence for raping and killing a 16-year-old girl, Jennifer Long, in Kansas City, Missouri, 1998. Lee, a one-time white supremacist who killed a family of three, was scheduled to be executed Monday. You’re killing an innocent man,” He had said. Here's what Lee, Purkey, and Honken wished to eat for their final meals and the words they spoke as they left the world: Lee, a 47-year-old white supremacist, who tortured and killed an Arkansas family in 1996, was executed in Indiana early morning on Tuesday, June 14. The scheduled executions reignited legal challenges to the specific protocol used in executions and reinvigorated a debate concerning the constitutionality of lethal injection. He said them to me. Eventually someone asked if anyone knew what time it was. My face was one of the last he saw. Baker Kurrus, an attorney for the victims' family, told CNN Tuesday morning the family is "heartbroken" and said "the government prevented them from being there and family did everything they could to be there. GET BREAKING NEWS IN YOUR BROWSER. (CNN) Daniel Lewis Lee, a convicted killer, was executed Tuesday morning in the first federal execution in 17 years after the Supreme Court issued … TERRE HAUTE, Ind. I’ve been a crime reporter for years, but this felt different. },false) let gads_event; Death-row inmate Dustin Lee Honken, who killed a family of four, including two children and another person, was executed on Friday, July 17, at 4 pm local time, marking the government's third federal execution in a month after 17 years. ", "It is shameful that the government saw fit to carry out this execution when counsel for Danny Lee could not be present with him, and when the judges in his case and even the family of his victims urged against it," Friedman said. }); Those were his last words. The curtain came down. window.googletag.cmd.push(function() { "And it is beyond shameful that the government, in the end, carried out this execution in haste, in the middle of the night, while the country was sleeping. Three death row convicts, Daniel Lewis Lee, Wesley Ira Purkey, and Dustin Honken were put to death last week in a series of first federal executions in 17 years in the United States. Daniel Lee Lopez, 27, was executed by lethal injection on 12 August 2015 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a police officer while evading arrest. Lee was already there — strapped to a gurney. ET Tuesday. MEAWW is an initialism for Media Entertainment Arts WorldWide. ", Attorney General William Barr said Lee "finally faced the justice he deserved.". A federal judge blocked the planned execution of Lee, and three others, citing ongoing challenges to the federal government's lethal injection protocol. document.querySelector("#ads").addEventListener('click',function(){ }); But this time we weren’t allowed to leave. By Ariane de Vogue, Chandelis Duster and David Shortell, CNN, Updated 1611 GMT (0011 HKT) July 14, 2020. He was pronounced dead. But there would be a long wait as his legal appeals made their way to the Supreme Court. Why have models of Colorado’s coronavirus trajectory been off? window.googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotRenderEnded', function(event) { And there wasn’t much time to dwell on the experience, because another execution was scheduled for the next day. Prison officials stated that Purkey — owing to his mental illness — lacked in understanding and put aside the pecan pie in his last meal for later. eventAction: 'view'