US set to execute third man this week
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — The United States on Thursday carried out its second federal execution in three days following a hiatus of nearly two decades, killing by lethal injection a Kansas man whose lawyers contended he had dementia and was unfit to be executed.
Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute. He was executed for kidnapping and killing a 16-year-old girl, Jennifer Long, before dismembering, burning and dumping her body in a septic pond. He also was convicted in a state court in Kansas of using a claw hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who had polio.
After Purkey was strapped to a gurney inside the execution chamber, a prison official removed a mask from his face and asked if he wanted to make a final statement.
He leaned his head up slightly from the gurney and said: “I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer’s family. I am deeply sorry.”
He also expressed remorse for his own adult daughter’s suffering from his actions.
His last words were: “This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever. Thank you.”
As the lethal chemical was injected, Purkey took several deep breaths and blinked repeatedly, laying his head back down on the gurney. His time of death was 8:19 a.m. EDT.
Jennifer’s father, William Long, and her stepmother were there. Long said delays since the 2003 trial were excruciating and he was glad it was over.
He said he hoped Purkey “rots in hell.”
The Supreme Court had cleared the way for the execution to take place just hours before, ruling in a 5-4 decision. The four liberal justices dissented, as they had for the first case earlier this week.
The Supreme Court also lifted a hold placed on other executions set for Friday and next month. Dustin Honken, a drug kingpin from Iowa convicted of killing five people in a scheme to silence former dealers, is to be put to death at the prison Friday.
Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death Tuesday after his eleventh-hour legal bids failed.