WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th July, 2020) The US Justice Department has filed an appeal against a court order that halted what would have been the first Federal execution to take place since 2003, a court filing revealed on Monday.
Earlier on Monday, the US District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the scheduled execution of Daniel Lewis Lee.
"Notice is hereby given this 13th day of July 2020, that Defendants in this action appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from the Order of this Court entered on July 13, 2020," the court document said.
Lee was convicted in Arkansas of the 1996 killings of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell.
Two others, Alfred Bourgeois and Dustin Lee Honken were to be executed later this month while a fourth person Wesley Ira Purkey was to undergo lethal injection in August. All were convicted of murdering children.
Lee's execution would have been the first of a federal prisoner in 17 years, and marks the culmination of the Trump administration's attempt to revive the US government's use of a punishment long bogged down by legal challenges.
