US ends week with third federal execution after 17-year pause
WASHINGTON _ The United States on Friday carried out its third federal execution in a week following a Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for federal executions to resume for the first time since 2003.
The Vigo County coroner in the state of Iowa pronounced Dustin Lee Honken, 52, dead at 4:36 p.m. (2036 GMT), the Federal Bureau of Prisons said in a statement.
Honken killed five people, including a 10-year-old and a 6-year-old. He was convicted of five counts of murder and sentenced to death in 2005.
Two federal executions were carried out earlier in the week. Daniel Lewis Lee, a white supremacist who was convicted of murdering a family of three, was executed on Tuesday, and Wesley Ira Purkey, who was convicted of killing a 16-year-old girl, was put to death on Thursday.
One additional federal execution is scheduled to take place next month.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr have advocated for the resumption of federal executions.
On June 29, the Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to the federal death penalty method, effectively paving the way for the executions of four men to move forward.
_dpa
