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US Judge Delays Execution Scheduled for Wednesday

VOA News

   A federal judge in Washington has issued a preliminary injunction
   halting the planned execution Wednesday of the second person scheduled
   to die this week after the federal government resumed carrying out
   death sentences.

   Lawyers for 68-year-old Wesley Ira Purkey argued he is currently
   incompetent to be executed because he does not understand it is
   punishment for his capital crime, that he has a history of mental
   illness, and that dementia has caused his mental health to decline.

   District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan said in her ruling that Purkey's
   defense has "made a substantial showing of incompetence," and that he
   is therefore "entitled to an opportunity to be heard, including a fair
   hearing."

   In order to ensure such a hearing can take place, she ordered the
   government may not go through with the execution at this time.

   Purkey was sentenced to death for killing and dismembering a teenager
   in the state of Missouri in 1998.'¯He also pleaded guilty to the later
   killing of an 80-year-old woman.'¯

   Wednesday's injunction comes a day after Daniel Lewis Lee became the
   first person the federal government executed since 2003.

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