TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — The United States has carried out its second federal execution this week, killing by lethal injection a Kansas man whose lawyers contended he had dementia.
Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death Thursday at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Purkey was convicted of kidnapping and killing a girl in Missouri and dismembering her body.
He expressed remorse before his execution, saying he regretted the “pain and suffering” he caused. The victim's father says he hopes Purkey “rots in hell.”
The Supreme Court cleared the way for Purkey's execution to take place just hours before.
Another man, Daniel Lewis Lee, was put to death Tuesday, ending a 17-year hiatus on federal executions. Lee's execution went forward after its own late-night Supreme Court ruling allowing it to happen.
