NEWS (8/​28/​20) — The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment exe­cut­ed Keith Nelson on August 28. He was the fifth fed­er­al pris­on­er to be exe­cut­ed in 2020.

Nelson’s exe­cu­tion had been put on hold sev­er­al times as a result of pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tions issued in response to exe­cu­tion chal­lenges brought by death-row pris­on­ers Daniel Lee and Wesley Purkey. However, the U.S. Supreme Court vacat­ed those injunc­tions pri­or to Lee’s and Purkey’s exe­cu­tions in July. 

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia grant­ed Nelson a short-lived ​“per­ma­nent injunc­tion” against his exe­cu­tion August 27, hold­ing that the fed­er­al exe­cu­tion pro­to­col vio­lat­ed the Federal Food and Drug Act. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit lift­ed the injunc­tion lat­er in the day, rul­ing that the dis­trict court had not pro­vid­ed enough fac­tu­al sup­port for its find­ing of that Nelson would suf­fer irrepara­ble harm from the gov­ern­men­t’s vio­la­tion of the statute. The dis­trict court then denied Nelson’s request that it make addi­tion­al find­ings and rein­state the injunction.

There have been twelve exe­cu­tions in the United States so far in 2020. Five states and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment have car­ried out executions. 

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