By December 6, 2019
United States Supeme Court. Mark Thomas from Pixabay
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request from the Trump administration to lift an injunction on federal executions, blocking the government’s plan for five convicted murderers to be put to death by mid-January.
Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh issued a statement concurring with the decision, saying “in light of what is at stake, it would be preferable for the District Court’s decision to be reviewed on the merits by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit before the executions are carried out.”
Daniel Lewis Lee, 46, a white supremacist convicted in 1999 along with co-defendant Chevie O’Brien Kehoe in the killings of three members of an Arkansas family, including an 8-year-old girl, had been scheduled to be the first prisoner in 16 years to be executed by the federal government.