News / Politics

Trump administration resumes federal executions after 17 years

Tuesday, 14 July 2020 3:13 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 14 July 2020 3:13 PM ]

Protestors gather near the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute, to show their opposition to the death penalty and execution of Daniel Lewis Lee, in Terre Haute, Indiana, US, July 13, 2020. (Photo by Reuters)

The administration of US President Donald Trump has officially resumed federal executions after 17 years by putting to death a convicted murderer by lethal injection following the Supreme Court’s clearance.

The Department of Justice said in a statement that Daniel Lewis Lee was pronounced dead after a lethal injection at 8:07 am (1207 GMT) at Terre Haute prison in Indiana on Tuesday.

The US Supreme Court had ruled a day earlier that the first federal executions in 17 years could proceed for the 47-year-old Lee and three other inmates, overturning a lower court's order delaying them.

The ruling was met with opposition from protestors who gathered near the Terre Haute prison to show their indignation about the death penalty and execution of Lee.

Protestors gather near the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute, to show their opposition to the death penalty and execution of Daniel Lewis Lee, in Terre Haute, Indiana, US, July 13, 2020. (Photo by Reuters)

Lee, convicted of murdering a family of three in 1996, was the first of three federal inmates scheduled to be executed this week since 2003 and the first since Trump announced plans to resume federal executions.

Lee proclaimed his innocence in his final statement, according to a reporter from a local newspaper who witnessed the execution.

"You're killing an innocent man," the Indianapolis Star quoted Lee as saying.

US appeals court hands win to Trump plan to resume federal executions

The Trump administration’s effort to resume federal executions got a boost on Tuesday from a US appeals court, which tossed a district judge’s injunction that blocked four death penalty sentences from being carried out.

There have been just three federal executions in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1988.

More than 1,000 US religious leaders, accusing Trump of "political use of the death penalty", called on the incumbent US president last week to drop plans to resume federal executions.

Some US states, mainly in the conservative South, still carry out executions, with 22 people having been put to death last year.

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