The executions of four death row prisoners planned for Monday July 13 by the US federal government have been suspended by a court in Washington which ruled that all the appeals filed by the condemned had not been examined.
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The Department of Justice is expected to appeal after this decision. Remedies can go to the United States Supreme Court. The US government plans to execute Daniel Lee, a white supremacist sentenced to death in 1999 for the murder of a couple and their eight-year-old girl, on Monday. Two more executions are scheduled this week, and a fourth on August 28. All relate to men sentenced to death by federal courts for the murder of children.
But federal judge Tanya Chutkan on Monday morning suspended the executions, saying they " bypass legitimate legal proceedings ". The four say that the scheduled injection of a lethal dose of pentobarbital would cause them " irreparable " suffering in violation of the Constitution, an argument often used by opponents of the death penalty.
Protect the “health” of those attending the executions
With the suspension, " the court is ensuring that the courts will have the opportunity to carefully consider these issues, " said Shawn Nolan, counsel for one of the convicts. The suspension also protects " the life and health " of those expected to attend the executions, which " threaten to be super-propagators of the Covid-19, " he added in a statement.
In separate legal proceedings, several relatives of the victims of Daniel Lee had obtained an extension of the deadline last week, citing their vulnerability to the new coronavirus, while the prison in Terre-Haute (Indiana) where it is to be executed has announced on Sunday that one of its employees had tested positive for coronavirus. They explained that they were faced with an impossible choice, between their right to attend the last moments of the convict in a confined room and concerns for their health. But their request was canceled on appeal Sunday.
