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Why was Daniel Lewis Lee’s execution delayed and when did it happen?
THE US government carried out the first federal execution in nearly two decades on Tuesday.
Here is more on the by lethal injection and the controversy surrounding it.
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Who was Daniel Lewis Lee?
, who was 47, was a one-eyed white supremacist from Yukon, .
He was found guilty of three counts of murder by an jury in 1999 and was sentenced to death.
Why was he executed?
Lee was convicted of killing gun dealer William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell, in Tilly, Arkansas.
Prosecutors said Lee had been recruited to join Chevie Kehoe's white supremacist organization known as the Aryan Peoples’ Republic.
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Kehoe, who was Lee's co-defendant, was sentenced to life in prison.
It was alleged during their trial that the pair stole guns and $50,000 in cash as part of their plan to establish a whites-only nation.
Prosecutors say Lee and Kehoe questioned little Sarah about where they could find money and ammunition.
They used trash bags and duct tape to suffocate the victims before taping rocks to their bodies and dumping them in a nearby bayou.
Lee was found guilty of three counts of murder in aid of racketeering in connection with the 1996 slayings.
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Why was his execution delayed?
Lee was scheduled to be put to death on Monday, but a US District Court judge put his lethal injection on hold over concerns from death row inmates on how executions were to be carried out.
Questions have been raised about the use of the drug pentobarbital, and Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote that its use could cause inmates cruel and unusual punishment, according to .
Despite the single-drug technique coming under scrutiny, the US Supreme Court stepped in early Tuesday and allowed the execution to move forward with a 5-4 vote.
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An appeals court had previously overturned a different hold that had been put in place last week after the victims’ relatives argued they would be put at high risk for the coronavirus if they had to travel to attend the execution.
The pandemic has killed more than 135,000 people in the US and is ravaging prisons all over the country.
Two other federal executions are scheduled for later this week, though one remains on hold.
There had not been a federal execution since 2003.
“The government has been trying to plow forward with these executions despite many unanswered questions about the legality of its new execution protocol,” said Shawn Nolan, a lawyer for one of the men facing federal execution.
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When did Lee's execution take place?
Lee's execution took place on Tuesday morning in Terre Haute, , and he was pronounced dead at 8:07 am.
The execution was set to happen at 4 am, but a last-minute legal question was raised by his lawyers.
The Justice Department said it filed a request with the court to straighten it out but went through with the execution.
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Lee breathed heavily before the drug was injected and moved his legs and feet.
As the drug was being administered, he raised his head to look around.
His chest was no longer moving a few moments later.
What were Lee's final words?
“I didn’t do it," Lee said just before he was executed.
"I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I’m not a murderer."
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His final words were: "You’re killing an innocent man.”
Lee also criticized the court system for ignoring DNA evidence.
“I bear no responsibility for the deaths of the Mueller family,” he said, according to .
Lee said he and Kehoe were not even in that part of the country when the murders took place.
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Was Daniel Lewis Lee blind?
Lee lost one eye in a fight.
Kehoe looked more "clean-cut" during the trial and was able to avoid the death penalty, according to .
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