A federal district court ruled that 47-year-old Daniel Lee’s scheduled execution in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Monday, July 13, 2020, would be delayed after the family of his victims said doing so would put them in “to potentially deadly peril” as COVID-19 cases, which has killed more than 130,000 people, resurges and is ravaging prisons nationwide.
Earlene Peterson, Kimma Gurel, and Monica Veillette are members of Lee's victims' families and were selected by the warden at the U. S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana to attend the execution. The victims’ families argue that Barr violated federal law when he scheduled the execution for July 13 “without adequate measures in place to protect them.” "The harm to Ms. Peterson, for example, is being forced to choose whether being present for the execution of a man responsible for the death of her daughter and granddaughter is worth defying her doctor"s orders and risking her own life," the Court wrote. The Court ruled that the preliminary injunction would remain until the Justice Department is in compliance with the federal law and “reasonable consideration of the plaintiffs’ right to be present for the execution.”
"The family is hopeful that the federal government will support them by not appealing today’s ruling," the family attorney said in a statement. The Justice Department thereafter appealed the ruling to United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to allow the execution to be conducted as planned on Monday afternoon.
The Arkansas judge who presided at trial and the lead prosecutor in the case have expressed their opposition to Lee's death sentence.
The court order applies only to Mr. Lee's execution and does not halt the executions of Wesley Ira Purkey and Keith Dwayne Nelson scheduled for Wednesday and Friday respectively.
Earlier this month, more than a thousand faith leaders signed a statement calling on Mr. Trump and the attorney general to halt the executions. "As our country grapples with the COVID 19 pandemic, an economic crisis, and systemic racism in the criminal legal system, we should be focused on protecting and preserving life, not carrying out executions," their statement said.