UnNews:Judge halts execution of killer because of coronavirus
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| Judge halts execution of killer because of coronavirus | 
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11 July 2020
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana -- A judge halted the execution of a child killer, saying the Justice Department scheduled a date without considering his victim’s family’s concerns about the coronavirus.
Daniel Lee Lewis was to be executed on July 13 for gunning down a gun dealer and his entire family. However, other relatives filed suit seeking to delay his execution until the viral outbreak slows down, as well as the Earth's orbit around the Sun, to allow for safe travel and safe social gathering. The victim's 81-year-old mother, Earlene Peterson, filed the complaint along with other family members. They said they oppose the execution, but if it is to occur, they definitely want front-row seats. "We don't get many chances for the whole family to be together, you see," Peterson stated. She said seeing Lewis be put to death would be a fine occasion for a reunion and perhaps a reprise of her delectable potato salad.
Lewis's execution had been previously delayed because Indiana lacks lethal injections that meet federal guidelines for safety and efficacy, certified to kill him without harming him.
Chief District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson sided with the plaintiffs and scolded the Justice Department, saying it knew that Peterson had a 500-mile journey from Arkansas to watch Lewis's life get snuffed out, a trip complicated not only by the viral outbreak and the current wave of urban rioting and looting, but by other dilemmas such as those involved in buying gasoline and sandwiches at truck stops. The judge scolded the department for "giving no consideration whatever" to Peterson's rights, such as debating ways Arkansas might be moved closer to Indiana.
Barker Kurrus, an attorney for the relatives, hoped the federal government would not contest today's ruling. He said the relatives were given the untenable decision between traveling at great risk to their health and safety, or forgoing the chance to chuckle at Lewis's final muscle spasms.
Fortunately, the judge's decision only stops the execution of Lewis, and not three other lethal injections the Justice Department has planned for July. It falls to other of the government's myriad District judges with hyphenated last names to gum those up.
14 July 2020
Convicted child killer Daniel Lee Lewis has indeed been given the "hot shot" and has joined his three victims in the afterlife.
A last-minute appeal to the Supreme Court failed. Lewis's lawyers had hoped to seize on a decision authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch that the entire eastern half of Oklahoma never stopped being an Indian reservation when Oklahoma became a state, claiming that Indiana was arguably an Indian reservation as well. However, as Lewis was strapped to a gurney for four hours awaiting the lethal injection, the Court ruled, 5-4, that federal executions could proceed after a 17-year hiatus for navel-gazing. In a scathing dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that Lee "seems like a nice young man to me."
Lewis had hoped to establish a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest. This work will now fall on other shoulders, as even the blacks-only nation in the middle of downtown Seattle has been dismantled.
Sources[edit]
- Jeff Mordock "Judge halts execution of convicted killer because of coronavirus concerns". Washington Times, July 10, 2020
- Jeff Mordock "U.S. executes convicted killer for first time in 17 years". Washington Times, July 14, 2020