China News Agency, Houston, July 14 (Xinhua)-On the morning of the 14th, local time, a 47-year-old man was executed in a federal prison. This is the first federal death sentence in the United States in 17 years. A few days ago, the US federal multi-level courts made consecutive rulings on whether to execute the death penalty and whether the injection death penalty violated the US Federal Constitution.
According to the National Public Radio, the US Supreme Court issued a ruling at 2 a.m. on the 14th, revoking a ruling of the lower federal court and allowing the death penalty for Daniel Lee. At 8 am on the same day, the Indiana state government declared Daniel Lee dead.
According to CNN, Daniel was a white supremacist who was sentenced to death by federal court for murdering a family of three in 1996, including an 8-year-old child, and was later held in a death row in Indiana More than 20 years.
The execution of Daniel that was originally scheduled to be executed on July 13 was postponed due to consecutive rulings by the US Federal Multi-level Court.
On the morning of the 13th, U.S. District Judge Chukan of Washington, DC, announced that in accordance with the Eighth Amendment of the US Federal Constitution, the execution of the death penalty by injecting the drug pentobarbital was equivalent to "a cruel and unusual punishment". The judge ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional Yes, it is required to postpone execution.
In response, the United States Department of Justice quickly appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC, and the Supreme Court of the United States. On the evening of the 13th, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeal ruled that it refused to execute the death penalty for injection. A few hours later, in the early morning of the 14th, nine justices of the United States Supreme Court ruled that with five people in favor and four against, the execution can be continued.
United States Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Buder Ginsberg challenged the ruling and pointed out that the United States Supreme Court should review whether the death penalty itself is unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts of the United States Supreme Court said that five states in the United States have executed the death penalty by injecting pentobarbital and executed about 100 prisoners.
According to the "Washington Post" report, in 2019, the US Attorney General William Barr announced that the federal death penalty has been abolished for nearly 20 years.
In April this year, a federal appeals court in the United States ruled to approve the death penalty by injecting drugs. After that, the US Department of Justice plans to sentence four death row inmates from July 13 to August 28. (Finish)