It only makes sense that if you’re convicted of heinous crimes, like first-degree murder, then the government has the right to end your life.
Yet for the past 17 years, the federal government hasn’t carried out any executions!
Instead, we’ve been keeping these criminals alive on the taxpayer’s dime.
Well, President Trump has ordered an end to that. He’s resumed federal executions and the first one in 17 years took place today.
The Associated Press reports on the execution carried out today:
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. And the Trump administration’s determination to proceed with executions added a new chapter to the national conversation about criminal justice reform in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election.
Just before he died at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, Lee, professed his innocence.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I’m not a murderer.” said Lee, 47, of Yukon, Oklahoma. “You’re killing an innocent man.”
The government is scheduled to execute two more men this week, including Wesley Ira Purkey on Wednesday for the killing of a Kansas City teenager in 1998. But legal experts say the 68-year-old Purkey, who suffers from dementia, has a greater chance of avoiding that fate because of his mental state.
The decision by the Bureau of Prisons to move forward with executions — the first since 2003 — has drawn scrutiny from civil rights groups and the wider public. Relatives of Lee’s victims sued to try to halt it, citing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 135,000 people in the United States and is ravaging prisons nationwide.
Critics argued the government was creating a manufactured urgency for political gain. One of Lee’s lawyers, Ruth Friedman, said it was “beyond shameful that the government, in the end, carried out this execution in haste.”
But Attorney General William Barr said, “Lee finally faced the justice he deserved. The American people have made the considered choice to permit capital punishment for the most egregious federal crimes, and justice was done today in implementing the sentence for Lee’s horrific offenses.”
Attorney General Bill Barr couldn’t have said it any better!
Justice was indeed served today.
Look at some of the reactions on Twitter to the execution:
Resuming executions hasn't been without its hurdles.
A federal judge attempted to block Trump from carrying out the execution, but the Supreme Court allowed the execution to take place.
More details on that from Fox News:
The Supreme Court, in an early morning filing Tuesday, paved the way for the first federal executions to take place since 2003 after a lower court placed a hold on one execution hours earlier.
Daniel Lewis Lee had been scheduled to receive a lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital at 4 p.m. ET Monday at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. But a court order preventing Lee’s execution, issued Monday morning by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, remained in place.A federal appeals court in Washington refused the Trump administration’s plea to step in, before the Supreme Court acted. Still, Lee's lawyers said the execution could not go forward after midnight under federal regulations.
Lee was sentenced to death for the 1996 killings of a gun dealer, the dealer’s wife and their 8-year-old daughter in Arkansas.
Victims' families had argued that they should be able to be present for the execution but cited close quarters and concerns regarding the location and its personnel -- a Bureau of Prisons staff member involved in preparing for the execution tested positive for the coronavirus.
Attorney General William Barr told The Associated Press in recent days that he believes the Bureau of Prisons could “carry out these executions without being at risk.” The agency has put a number of additional measures in place, including temperature checks and requiring witnesses to wear masks.
Two more executions are scheduled this week, Wesley Ira Purkey on Wednesday and Dustin Lee Honken on Friday.
Also, take note that the executed man, Daniel Lewis Lee, was a murdering white supremacist.
It goes to show that the ridiculous charges by Democrats against Trump and his supporters of being white supremacists are not true in any way.
You can watch Newsweek's profile of Daniel Lewis Lee and his disgusting crimes right here:
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