YANKS GET GREEN LIGHT FOR FEDERAL EXECUTIONS

US murderer Daniel Lewis Lee has been put to death, hours after the Supreme Court allowed the first executions of federal inmates in 17 years.

Several executions were initially delayed when a judge ruled on Monday that there were still unresolved legal challenges.

Condemned prisoners argued that lethal injections constitute “cruel and unusual punishments”.

But the Supreme Court voted 5-4 that “executions may proceed as planned”.

Last year, Donald Trump’s administration said it would resume federal executions.

Some of the relatives of Lee’s victims opposed his execution in Indiana and had sought to have it delayed, arguing that attending it could expose them to coronavirus.

Earlene Peterson, 81, whose daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law were killed by Lee, said she wanted the 47-year-old to be given life in jail, the same sentence as his accomplice.

The Trump administration’s move has been criticised as a political decision, with campaigners expressing concern about cases being rushed.

Lee (left) was convicted of torturing and killing a family in Arkansas in 1996, dumping their bodies in a lake.

Postponed from December, his execution had been rescheduled for July 13 but was blocked by a ruling from District Judge Tanya Chutkan.

The previous inmate executed by federal death penalty was Louis Jones Jr, a 53-year-old Gulf War veteran who murdered 19-year-old soldier Tracie Joy McBride.