US Government Executes Wesley Ira Purkey, Second Federal Death This Week
After 17 years, the US government has carried out its second federal death this week, after executing 68-year-old Wesley Ira Purkey on Thursday. His federal execution follows that of white supremacist Daniel Lewis Lee on Tuesday morning.
Purkey — whose death was originally scheduled on Wednesday evening, but was met with last minute legal filings — received a sentencing of death in January 2004 after being convicted in a federal court for the interstate kidnapping and killing of 16-year-old Jennifer Long in 1998.
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Before his death by lethal injection at a Terre Haute, Indiana penitentiary, Purkey made a final statement:”I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer’s family. I am deeply sorry. I deeply regret the pain I caused to my daughter, who I love so very much. This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever.”
Furthermore, speaking on the lengthy process, Long’s father and stepmother released statements. Olivia Long said, “It just took way too long. All these appeals, some of them he put through several times. And then we sat in a van for four hours this morning while he did a bunch more appeals. … We just shouldn’t have to wait this long.”
William Long added, “It brings up everything all over again. You just sit there and relive it. Every day for the rest of my life I will think of it, I will remember it and it is not something any parent should have to live through.”
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