Federal judge blocks federal execution of man who killed Kansas City teen — for now
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday halted the execution of Wesley Ira Purkey, who was convicted of raping and killing a Kansas City teenager before dismembering her body in 1998.
U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan issued a preliminary injunction preventing the Federal Bureau of Prisons from moving forward with Purkey’s execution Wednesday. The injunction challenges Purkey’s mental competency to be executed, as he suffers from advanced Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, schizophrenia and brain damage.
“Wes Purkey is a 68-year old, severely brain-damaged and mentally ill man who suffers from advanced Alzheimer’s disease and dementia,” Purkey’s attorney, Rebecca Woodman, said in a statement.
Purkey was set to be executed Wednesday at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was sentenced to death in January 2004 after he was convicted of kidnapping 16-year-old Jennifer Long.
He was also convicted in Wyandotte County of murdering Mary Ruth Bales, 80, of Kansas City, Kansas. She was killed with a hammer.
The legal wrangling over Purkey’s execution suggested a volley of litigation would continue into Wednesday evening, similar to what happened before the government executed Daniel Lewis Lee following a ruling from the Supreme Court. One of the injunctions imposed Wednesday would halt not only Purkey’s execution, but another that has been scheduled for Friday and one in August.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ended the stay by the 7th Circuit, but the others remained in place. Purkey’s execution was originally scheduled for Wednesday afternoon but was put off until the evening as the legal issues played out.
Lawyers for the 68-year-old Purkey have said he has advancing Alzheimer’s disease and does not understand why the government wants to execute him. They argued the execution would therefore violate his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment.
“Though he has long accepted responsibility for his crime, he no longer has a rational understanding of why the government plans to execute him. By staying Wes’s execution, the court’s action signals the importance of allowing him to present the extensive, available medical evidence demonstrating his incompetency to be executed,” Woodman wrote.
Last month, the U.S. Justice Department set the execution dates for Purkey and three other federal death row inmates, the first to be carried out by the federal government in nearly 20 years.
An Aug. 28 execution date has been set for Keith D. Nelson, who kidnapped, raped and killed a 10-year-old Kansas City, Kansas, girl in 1999.
The girl, Pamela Butler, was rollerblading near her house when Nelson grabbed her, threw her into a pickup truck and sped away, according to prosecutors. Her body was later found in a wooded area in Grain Valley. Nelson pleaded guilty in 2001 to interstate kidnapping resulting in death.
On Tuesday, Lee was executed by lethal injection at the penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was convicted in Arkansas of killing a family of three, including an 8-year-old.
The execution date for the remaining death row inmate, Dustin Lee Honken, has been set for Friday in Terre Haute. Honken killed five people in Iowa, including two children.
The Star’s Luke Nozicka and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 9:26 AM.
