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#Post#: 371--------------------------------------------------
~ Wesley Purkey, 16Jul20, (FedMO) ~
By: BuzzC Date: July 28, 2019, 7:03 am
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[IMG]
HTML http://media.ksdk.com/assets/KSDK/images/af96e454-51f8-496d-b20c-48c00d314281/af96e454-51f8-496d-b20c-48c00d314281_750x422.jpg[/img]
Kansas killer who picked up victim in Missouri to be among first
5 federal inmates executed.
Wesley Ira Purkey is scheduled to be executed Dec. 13.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas man who raped, killed and
dismembered a 16-year-old girl and beat an 80-year-old woman to
death is among the first five federal death-row inmates
scheduled for execution when the federal government resumes
executions.
The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday announced it planned
to resume execution of federal inmates for the first time since
2003.
The Kansas City Star reports that Purkey, of Lansing, killed
Jennifer Long in January 1998 after picking her up in Kansas
City, Missouri. He dumped her dismembered and burned body in a
septic pond in Clearwater, Kansas.
Nine months later, Purkey beat Mary Ruth Bales to death in her
Kansas City, Kansas, home.
He was sentenced to death for Long's killing.
HTML http://www.wcjb.com/2020/07/16/supreme-court-clears-way-for-2nd-federal-execution-this-week/?fbclid=IwAR3J7aV_RFIXjcF08vTjdFC5k-eXtxTTJl4L7JimMVWjbJtm2RWaJj_kDBE
8)
#Post#: 437--------------------------------------------------
Re: ~ Wesley Purkey, 16Jul20, (FedMO) ~
By: BuzzC Date: July 16, 2020, 3:08 pm
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Wesley Ira Purkey executed by lethal injection, the second
federal execution this week--
Thursday, July 16, 2020
The U.S. carried out its second federal execution this week by
killing Wesley Ira Purkey on Thursday morning.
Purkey, 68, died by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional
Complex in Terre Haute, Ind., at 8:19 a.m. local time.
The man was convicted in the 1998 kidnapping and killing of
16-year-old Jennifer Long, whose body was dismembered, burned
and dumped in a septic pond. That same year, Purkey also was
convicted in a state court in Kansas after using a claw hammer
to kill an 80-year-old woman who had polio.
Purkey's lawyers contended he suffered from dementia and was
unfit to be executed.
“I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer’s
family,” Purkey said in the moments before his execution. “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.”
The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for his execution to take
place just hours before, ruling in a 5-4 decision. The four
liberal justices dissented — as they had in the first execution
case earlier this week.
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.
It was the federal government’s second execution after a 17-year
hiatus. Another man, Daniel Lewis Lee, was put to death Tuesday
after his eleventh-hour legal bids failed.
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.
The issue of Purkey’s mental health arose in the run-up to his
2003 trial and when, after the verdict, jurors had to decide
whether he should be put to death in the killing of Long in
Kansas City, Missouri. Prosecutors said he raped and stabbed
Long, dismembered her with a chainsaw, burned her body and
dumped her ashes 200 miles away in a septic pond in Kansas.
Purkey was separately convicted and sentenced to life in the
beating death of 80-year-old Mary Ruth Bales, of Kansas City,
Kansas.
Purkey had a long history of childhood trauma, was sexually
abused by family members and a Catholic priest and was beaten by
other family members, Liz Vartkessian, a mitigation specialist
who worked with Purkey’s legal team and visited him dozens of
times in the last five years, told the Associated Press.
But recently, Purkey’s mental health had seriously deteriorated
to the point he didn’t have the stamina for long visits with his
legal team and often forgot key facts and dates, she said.
Correction officers had to help him write down a schedule to
remember his visits with his lawyers, Vartkessian added.
And he had a long history of paranoia and delusions and believed
the Justice Department was moving forward with his execution
because of many complaints and lawsuits he brought in prison,
even though most had failed, Vartkessian said.
The Supreme Court this week has also lifted a hold placed on
other executions set for Friday and next month.
Dustin Honken, a drug kingpin from Iowa convicted of killing
five people in a scheme to silence former dealers, is scheduled
for execution Friday.
8)
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