Government Carries Out First Federal Execution in 17 Years

Two men stood beside him in the execution chamber, a U.S. Marshal and a spiritual adviser, whom the Bureau of Prisons referred to as an “Appalachian pagan minister.” Neither wore a mask.

“I didn’t do it,” Mr. Lee said, according to a report from journalists who were at the scene. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I’m not a murderer.” He claimed the judge in his trial in Arkansas overlooked DNA evidence that proved he was across the country at the time of the murders.

After a senior bureau official told him that he was to be put to death, Mr. Lee shook his head. As the drug was administered to his veins, he raised his head to look around. Then his breaths became heavy. In just a few short moments, his chest remained still, his lips turned blue, and his fingers became ashy. He was pronounced dead at 8:07 a.m.

The federal government is scheduled to carry out two more executions this week. A court has issued a temporary stay in the case of Wesley Ira Purkey, 68, whom the Justice Department scheduled for execution on Wednesday for the 1998 killing and dismembering of a teenage girl in Kansas City.

Dustin Lee Honken, 52, convicted of killing three adults and two young girls in 1993, will be executed on Friday, barring any last-minute stays. Another prisoner, Keith Dwayne Nelson, 46, will face execution in August for the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl in 1999.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Indiana dismissed a suit brought by spiritual advisers for Mr. Purkey and Mr. Honken that argued for a delay on the grounds that their health could be jeopardized because of the coronavirus crisis if they entered the Terre Haute penitentiary.

The Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in 1972, arguing that it constituted “cruel and unusual punishment.” Four years later, it reversed that decision, amid rising rates of violent crime. Since then, some states have carried out regular executions, but only three men have been put to death by the federal government. Most recently, Louis Jones Jr. was executed in 2003 for the rape and murder of a female soldier.