NO DELAY

1st Federal Execution in 17 Years to Proceed Monday, Appeals Court Rules

The family of the victims argued that the execution should be delayed due to the pandemic.

The first federal execution in 17 years will be allowed to proceed on Monday, a federal appeals court ruled Sunday. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling that had delayed the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee. Lee was convicted of the 1996 killings of William Mueller, Nancy Mueller, and Nancy’s daughter Sarah Powell. An Indiana judge had ruled that the execution be delayed out of concern over the pandemic from the family of the victims. The family had argued that it would not be safe for them to travel to or attend the execution, but the appeals court found that their argument “lacks any arguable legal basis and is therefore frivolous.” The court determined that the concerns did not “outweigh the public interest in finally carrying out the lawfully imposed sentence in this case.”