TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Jul 16, 2020

Federal inmate Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death this morning after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted an injunction by a D.C. judge, the ABA Journal reports. Purkey was originally scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, but U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, for the second time this week, issued a preliminary injunction to delay the execution, citing Purkey’s mental state. In a 5-4 vote this morning, SCOTUS allowed the execution to proceed and Purkey was put to death shortly thereafter. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan dissented, with Sotomayor writing that Purkey has Alzheimer’s disease and does not believe he’s being executed for murder. Breyer, also for the second time this week, called for reexamining the constitutionality of the death penalty. Purkey was sentenced to death for the kidnapping, rape and murder of a 16-year-old in 1998. Daniel Lewis Lee was the first federal inmate to be executed this week since 2003.