Judge delays executions hours before Daniel Lewis Lee is set to die by lethal injection
A judge has ordered a delay in the first federal executions in nearly two decades, just hours before convicted murderer Daniel Lewis Lee was scheduled to be executed at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Lee's death by lethal injection — which would be the first federal execution in 17 years — was to take place at 4 p.m.
The status of four upcoming federal executions has been stop-and-go due to a series of last-minute court interventions. On late Friday afternoon, a district court ruled in favor of victims' family members, who petitioned for an injunction to pause the execution because traveling to attend would put them at higher risk of contracting the novel coronavirus.
An appeals court reversed that decision on Sunday.
However, Monday's decision was unrelated to those claims and pauses all scheduled federal executions, not just Lee's.
In an opinion issued Monday morning, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan of the District of Columbia said the injunction is in the public interest, because "the public is not served by short-circuiting legitimate judicial process, and is greatly served by attempting to ensure that the most serious punishment is imposed in a manner consistent with our Constitution."
This is the second time Chutkan has ordered an injunction in this case, according to The Hill. The first, last November, found new execution protocols likely violated federal death penalty laws, and was overturned by an appeals court and was not heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Lee and others had appealed their executions, arguing that the method of execution would violate their Eighth Amendment rights, as the injection would present "substantial risk of harm" and would result in unconstitutionally cruel punishment, and that there are alternatives available that would reduce the risk of pain.
The Department of Justice responded by filing a motion to appeal, requesting Chutkan stay the injunction while that appeal is pending. It has also has sought intervention from the Supreme Court of the United States.
In its motion to stay the injunction, the DOJ argues the plaintiffs did not propose "a known and available alternative method of execution that is feasible and readily implemented."
Lee and the other plaintiffs argued that execution by firing squad could be considered an alternative that would "significantly reduce the risk of severe pain," pointing to studies that have shown a competent shooting causes near-instant death and firing squads have the lowest rate of "botched" executions of any method of execution conducted since 1900.
Execution by firing squad is legal in three states, and the last such execution was conducted in June 2010 in Utah.
Further, the DOJ argues, each of these executions requires the activation of an "execution team" of about 40 Bureau of Prisons staffers and the mobilization of approximately 100 staffers to provide security and support during the execution. Delaying the execution, they argue, "would require significant planning and coordination such as that which already has been undertaken by BOP to date."
"This is particularly the case now that we are merely hours from Lee’s execution and two more inmates’ executions are only a few days away," they continued. "Accordingly, beyond the Government’s strong interest in proceeding with the criminal judgment, operational considerations surrounding the planned executions lend further support in favor of a stay."
The DOJ doubled down on its demands in a motion to have the issue go before the Supreme Court: "The district court's last-minute, day-of-execution injunction is inappropriate, contrary to binding precedent from this Court, and should be promptly stayed or summarily vacated."
Lee, a member of a white supremacist group, murdered a family of three, including an 8-year-old girl, in January 1996 in Arkansas. After robbing and shooting the victims with a stun gun, Lee covered their heads with plastic bags, sealed the bags with duct tape, weighed down each victim with rocks, and threw the family of three into the Illinois Bayou in Arkansas.
Lee was convicted in 1999 of three counts of murder in aid of racketeering and was sentenced to death.
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/indianapolis/2020/07/13/daniel-lewis-lee-execution-terre-haute-judge-orders-stay/5417537002/