First federal execution in 17 years carried out

TERRE HAUTE, IND. » The federal government on Tuesday carried out its first execution in almost two decades, killing by lethal injection a man convicted of murdering an Arkansas family in a 1990s plot to build a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest.

The execution of Daniel Lewis Lee came over the objection of the victims’ relatives and following days of legal delays, reviving the debate over capital punishment during a time of widespread social unrest.

Just before he died at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, Lee, professed his innocence.