Wesley Ira Purkey was killed by lethal injection at the penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., for killing a teenage girl more than two decades ago.
The Justice Department executed a 68-year-old man on Thursday for the gruesome murder in 1998 of a teenage girl, the second time this week the federal government has carried out capital punishment after a 17-year hiatus.
Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., by lethal injection after the Supreme Court rejected the last of a slew of legal challenges including assertions that he was not mentally competent.
He was pronounced dead at 8:19 a.m.
In the moments before his death, Mr. Purkey’s arms were strapped to a gurney, and a light blue blanket covered his body, according to a journalist who witnessed the execution. His spiritual adviser was nearby in a face mask and surgical mask, praying with gloved palms pressed together.
“I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer’s family,” Mr. Purkey said before the execution, referring to his victim, Jennifer Long,16, whom he raped, murdered and dismembered in Kansas City, Mo.
“I am deeply sorry,” Mr. Purkey said after a Bureau of Prisons official removed a mask from his face so he could speak. “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. Thank you.”
He took several deep breaths and blinked repeatedly before he lay his head back down on the gurney. With his mouth ajar and eyes closed, Mr. Purkey lay motionless for several minutes before prison officials reported a time of death.
The Justice Department announced its intention to bring back federal capital punishment last summer. After a series of court fights over its plan to use a single drug for lethal injection, Attorney General William P. Barr scheduled four executions for this summer, the first by the federal government since 2003.
Mr. Purkey was the second on the list.
Jennifer’s father and stepmother told reporters that Mr. Purkey’s execution was long overdue.
“He needed to take his last breath, he took my daughter’s last breath,” William Long, Jennifer’s father, said.
The Bureau of Prisons put to death Daniel Lewis Lee,47, on Tuesday morning for his part in the murder of a family of three.
