UPDATED: U.S. executes 2nd man in a week; lawyers said Wesley Ira Purkey had dementia
Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Purkey was convicted of kidnapping 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 after using a claw hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who had polio.
He also expressed remorse for his own adult daughter's suffering his actions caused. "I deeply regret the pain I caused to my daughter, who I love so very much," he said.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.
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.
Jennifer's father, William Long, and her stepmother attended Purkey's execution. Long said the delays to the execution were excruciating and he's glad it's over. He said he hoped Purkey "rots in hell." 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.
"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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