Entries tagged with “Wesley Purkey”
Executions
Lethal Injection
,Federal Death Penalty
,Feb 26, 2021
Federal Bureau of Prisons Sanitized Execution Reports, Omitting Disturbing Details Observed by Media Witnesses
Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officials repeatedly misrepresented accounts of the executions they carried out in 2020 and 2021, providing sanitized descriptions of the executions that omitted all references to dramatic body movements and signs of distress observed by media witnesses, according to an Associated Press report. The sworn accounts by executioners, which federal prosecutors provided to an expert witness and to a federal district court judge to…
Facts & Research
United States Supreme Court
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jan 29, 2021
Legitimacy and the Rule of Law: Supreme Court’s Institutional Standing Damaged by Rulings During Federal Execution Spree
From July 14, 2020 through January 16, 2021, the federal government executed thirteen prisoners. It was the most consecutive executions by a single jurisdiction since the U.S. death penalty resumed in the 1970s and the longest period of time in which an execution spree by any government went unabated while no other jurisdiction executed…
Policy Issues
Secrecy
,Lethal Injection
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jan 08, 2021
ProPublica Investigation Reveals Irregularities in Federal Executions
The federal government’s historically aberrant execution spree has been fraught with irregularities and “has trampled over an array of barriers, both legal and practical,” according to an investigative report by the non-profit news organization,…
Executions
Lethal Injection
,Federal Death Penalty
,Aug 26, 2020
Autopsy Results Provide ‘Virtual Medical Certainty’ that Prisoners will Experience ‘Excruciating Pain’ During Federal Executions
As the federal government began to carry out the second round of executions it has scheduled for 2020, autopsy results from the first round of executions in July suggest to a “virtual medical certainty” that federal death-row prisoners will experience “excruciating pain” while they are being put to death by lethal injection with…
Facts & Research
United States Supreme Court
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jul 17, 2020
Federal Government Carries Out Third Execution in One Week, As Challenges to Execution Protocol Fail
The United States government carried out its third execution in four days on July 17, 2020, executing Dustin Honken (pictured). The week’s executions doubled the number of prisoners the government has put to death since Congress reauthorized the federal death penalty in…
Policy Issues
Mental Illness
,United States Supreme Court
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jul 16, 2020
U.S. Government Hurriedly Executes Wesley Purkey After Overnight Rulings by U.S. Supreme Court Vacate Two Injunctions and a Stay of Execution
For the second time in three days, the United States government has executed a prisoner after a 5 – 4 overnight decision of the U.S. Supreme Court short-circuited judicial review of significant legal claims and after the original death warrant setting his execution date had…
Policy Issues
Mental Illness
,Religion
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jul 15, 2020
Wesley Purkey Execution Temporarily Halted as Challenges Pending on Mental Competency, Health Danger to Religious Advisor, and Ineffective Representation
Lawyers for Wesley Purkey (pictured), the second of three federal death-row prisoners scheduled to be executed during the week of July 13, are seeking to halt his execution, arguing that mental illness and dementia have left him mentally incompetent. As Purkey challenges the constitutionality of his execution, his spiritual advisor, Rev. Dale Hartkemeyer, is seeking to move back the execution until the COVID-19 pandemic subsides. Hartkemeyer’s lawsuit asserts…
Policy Issues
Victims' Families
,Lethal Injection
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jul 13, 2020
Chaos Surrounds Attempts to Resume Federal Executions
As the U.S. Department of Justice seeks to resume federal executions after a 17-year hiatus, the government’s rushed timeframe, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and unresolved issues involving the lethal-injection protocol, and the victims’ family’s rights have combined with alleged constitutional violations in the cases of the three prisoners slated for execution this week to produce a chaotic whirlwind of last-minute…
Policy Issues
Arbitrariness
,Intellectual Disability
,Mental Illness
,Race
,Religion
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jul 10, 2020
Op-Eds Highlight Disparities in Federal Death Penalty, as 1,000 Faith Leaders and the European Union Urge Justice Department to Halt Executions
As the scheduled July 13, 2020 date for the first federal executions in 17 years approaches, faith leaders, diplomats, and legal experts have asked the federal government to call them off. 1,000 faith leaders from across the country have urged President Trump and Attorney General Barr to halt the executions. They are joined by the European Union, which on July 10 also issued a statement strongly opposing the resumption of federal executions. Complementing their efforts, two…
Facts & Research
United States Supreme Court
,Lethal Injection
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jun 29, 2020
U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Hear Execution Protocol Case, Removing Barrier to Resumption of Federal Executions
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a challenge to the federal execution protocol, removing a potential major obstacle to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) plan to resume federal executions after a 17-year hiatus. The decision leaves in place an April 2020 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that lifted an injunction that had halted federal executions. The Department has scheduled four executions in July and…
Policy Issues
Mental Illness
,Representation
,Victims' Families
,Upcoming Executions
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jun 16, 2020
With Litigation Pending in U.S. Supreme Court, Federal Government Issues Four Death Warrants
With a petition for review pending before the U.S. Supreme Court on the legality and constitutionality of the federal execution protocol, U.S. Attorney General William Barr on June 15, 2020 set execution dates for four federal death-row prisoners, including three who are involved in the pending case. The warrants scheduled three executions over a five-day period in July and a fourth execution in late August. No federal executions have been carried out since 2003, and the five…
Executions
Lethal Injection
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jan 16, 2020
Appeals Court Hears Argument on Injunction that Halted Federal Executions
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard nearly two hours of argument on January 15, 2020 in four consolidated cases that could determine whether the federal government will be able to resume executions in 2020. The appeals panel — composed of Gregory G. Katsas and Neomi Rao, both appointed by President Donald Trump, and David S. Tatel, appointed by former President Bill Clinton — sharply questioned lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and four…
Facts & Research
United States Supreme Court
,Upcoming Executions
,Lethal Injection
,Federal Death Penalty
,Dec 07, 2019
Supreme Court Ruling Halts Scheduled Federal Executions
The United States Supreme Court has denied an application by the U.S. Department of Justice to lift a federal court injunction blocking the federal government from carrying out four executions scheduled for December 2019 and January 2020. The Court’s unanimous ruling, issued Friday evening December 6, ensures that there will be no federal executions in…
Policy Issues
Mental Illness
,Federal Death Penalty
,Dec 04, 2019
Lawyers for Federal Death-Row Prisoner Say Schizophrenia, Brain Injuries, and Dementia Have Left Him Incompetent to Be Executed
Lawyers for federal death-row prisoner Wesley Purkey, who is scheduled to be executed on December 13, 2019, say he is incompetent to be executed because he has Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and traumatic brain injuries that “render him unable to rationally understand the reason the United States seeks to execute…
Executions
Upcoming Executions
,Lethal Injection
,Federal Death Penalty
,Nov 21, 2019
Washington District Court Enjoins U.S. Government From Carrying Out Federal Executions
A federal judge in Washington has issued a preliminary injunction barring the United States government from carrying out four executions scheduled for December 2019 and January 2020. The opinion, issued November 20, 2019, temporarily halts the federal executions pending completion of court challenges to the government’s execution process and is a major blow to the Trump administration’s plan to resume carrying out the federal death penalty after a sixteen-year…