"Any doubts remaining about this Administration’s disregard for the rule of law, for the rights of its citizens, and for basic human decency have been laid to rest this week. On Tuesday, it illegally executed a man without a valid warrant after leaving him strapped to the execution gurney for over four hours. Now, the administration has illegally executed Wesley Ira Purkey, a 68-year-old man so impaired by Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and brain damage that he believed he was being killed in a conspiracy of retaliation for complaining about prison conditions. At the time of his death, Wes's dementia had progressed to the point that he could not remember the names of loved ones, and even believed his own lawyers were part of the vast government conspiracy against him. Wes had no rational understanding that the government planned to kill him for a crime he committed years ago, even though, before dementia exacerbated his cognitive decline, he had expressed profound remorse for his crime.
"The law has long been clear that executing a person whose mental illness prevents him from understanding the reason for his punishment is 'abhorrent,' and violates the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause. From the time the government first set an execution date for Mr. Purkey last summer, his lawyers have been asking the courts to hold a hearing on his incompetency, and to order the government to turn over extensive medical records supporting that determination.
"On Wednesday morning, the very day Wes was scheduled to die, a district judge in Washington, D.C. issued an injunction, finding that Mr. Purkey had provided substantial evidence of his incompetence supported by extensive expert reports and declarations, and that the government, on the other hand, 'provided no independent evidence of competence.'
"Later that day, Mr. Purkey's lawyers discovered that even as it raced to execute him, the government had been withholding from them scientific evidence documenting his advancing dementia. The injunction entered by the district court was upheld by the appellate court. And yet, in the early hours of Thursday, the district court's injunction was overturned by a 5-4 Supreme Court decision, with no explanation of the majority's rationale.
"Mr. Purkey's lawyers then sought habeas relief and a stay of execution in the Southern District of Indiana. On Thursday morning, that court denied the stay. It castigated Mr. Purkey's lawyers for not filing his competency suit there in the first place, disregarded the substantial evidence of incompetency that his lawyers produced even in the face of the government's stonewalling, and refused to consider the merits of Mr. Purkey's incompetency claim.
"Meanwhile, at 11:59 p.m. on July 15, the execution warrant for Mr. Purkey expired. Under federal law, this should have precluded any execution without sufficient notice of a new date and time for the execution. Reporters in Terre Haute tweeted that the government was, nevertheless, moving forward with its plans to execute Mr. Purkey.
"Mr. Purkey appealed to the Seventh Circuit. But at 8:19 a.m. – with the appeal pending, and again without sufficient notice – the government executed Wesley Ira Purkey.
"Wes Purkey's execution should shock the conscience of anyone who cares about justice and the rule of law. The government used every weapon in its arsenal to prevent any court from deciding the merits of his incompetency claim, even as evidence in its own possession showed Mr. Purkey's mental capacity was profoundly impaired. And by barreling ahead to execute during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government recklessly placed hundreds of people at serious and unnecessary risk.
"We should expect more of our federal government than the rushed execution of a damaged and delusional old man. As the district court in Washington, D.C. quoted in granting the short-lived injunction yesterday, 'the public interest has never been and could never be served by rushing to judgment at the expense of a condemned inmate's constitutional rights.' What happened today is truly abhorrent."
-Rebecca Woodman, attorney for Wesley Ira Purkey