Kansan Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death on July 16, 2020 at
the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. This was the second federal
execution in three days after a 17-year hiatus. He kidnapped 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. “I deeply regret the pain I caused to my daughter,
who I love so very much,” he said.
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.”
“We took care of today what we needed to take care of,” Long
said. “It has been a long time coming. He needed to take his last breath; he
took my daughter’s last breath. And there’s some resolve. There is no closure,
and there never will be because I won’t get my daughter back.”
The Supreme Court 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.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that “proceeding with Purkey’s
execution now, despite the grave questions and factual findings regarding his
mental competency, casts a shroud of constitutional doubt over the most
irrevocable of injuries.” She was joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer
and Elena Kagan.
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 on Friday.
While Purkey’s final words were lucid and contrite, his
lawyers say his mental health had seriously deteriorated to the point he didn’t
have the stamina for long visits with his legal team and often forgot key facts
and dates.
Purkey’s was the federal government’s second execution after
a 17-year hiatus as the Trump administration pressed for a resumption. Daniel Lewis Lee was
put to death Tuesday after his eleventh-hour legal bids failed. Both executions
were delayed as legal wrangling continued late into the night and into the next
morning.
The Justice Department has been questioned for holding the
executions in the middle of the worsening coronavirus pandemic,
prompting lawsuits
over fears those who would travel to the prison could become infected. The
decision to resume executions after nearly two decades was also criticized as
a dangerously
political move in an election year, forcing an issue that is not high
on the list of American priorities considering the 11% unemployment
rate and the pandemic.
A Justice Department spokeswoman on Thursday said a just
punishment had been carried out.
“After many years of litigation following the death of his
victims, in which he lived and was afforded every due process of law under our
Constitution, Purkey has finally faced justice,” spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said.
Purkey’s lawyers had argued his condition had deteriorated
so severely that he didn’t understand why he was being executed. They said he
was repeatedly sexually assaulted as a child and had been diagnosed with
schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other mental health conditions.
The
issue of Purkey’s mental health arose in the run-up to his trial and
when, after the verdict, jurors had to decide whether he should be put to death
in the killing of Jennifer in Kansas City, Missouri. Prosecutors said he raped
and stabbed her. He was separately convicted and sentenced to life in the beating
death of 80-year-old Mary Ruth Bales, of Kansas City, Kansas.
Purkey had a long history of childhood trauma, was sexually
abused by family members and a Catholic priest and was beaten by other family
members, said Liz Vartkessian, a mitigation specialist who worked with Purkey’s
legal team and visited him dozens of times in the last five years.
“His case is replete with instances where he has expressed a
deep remorse,” she said in an interview earlier this month.
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