The first federal execution in the US for more than 17 years is set to go ahead on Monday following a ruling by an appeal court.
Daniel Lewis Lee, of Yukon, Oklahoma, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 4pm (8pm GMT) on Monday at a prison in Indiana.
He was convicted in Arkansas of the 1996 killings of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her eight-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell.
The victim's family had previously got a delay on the execution arguing that they would have to take part in high risk travel to attend during the pandemic, but a federal appeals court lifted the injunction on Sunday. The family had vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The decision to move forward with the execution – and two others scheduled later in the week – during a global health pandemic which has ravaged the country’s prisons has drawn scrutiny from civil rights groups and the family of Lee’s victims.
Critics have argued that the government is creating an unnecessary and manufactured urgency around a topic that is not high on the current list of American concerns.
It is also likely to add a new front to the national conversation about criminal justice reform in the lead-up to the 2020 elections.
