US carries out 2nd federal execution this week after Supreme Court nod

The US federal government has executed its second prisoner this week, following a 17-year pause after the US Supreme Court again intervened to allow the execution to proceed, overturning a lower court ruling that had blocked it.

The Department of Justice executed convicted murderer Wesley Purkey by lethal injection on Thursday, and he was pronounced dead at 1219 GMT (8:19 am EDT) at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman said.

The execution had been blocked by a federal court, but the Supreme Court overruled it, just as it did in another case on Tuesday, putting the federal government back in the business of executing prisoners.

"This sanitised murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever. Thank you," a remorseful Purkey said in his final words, according to a reporter who was allowed to witness the killing and share notes with the media.

Purkey, 68, was convicted in 2003 in Missouri of raping and murdering a 16-year-old girl before dumping her dismembered and burned remains in a septic pond.

As part of his final statement, he said: “I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer’s family. I am deeply sorry."

While Purkey's final words were lucid and contrite, his lawyers say his mental health had seriously deteriorated to the point he didn’t have the stamina for long visits with his legal team and often forgot key facts and dates.

Rebecca Woodman, one of his attorneys, described him as a "severely brain-damaged and mentally ill man who suffers from advanced Alzheimer's disease and dementia."

"Though he has long accepted responsibility for his crime, he no longer has a rational understanding of why the government plans to execute him," Woodman said.

READ MORE: US carries out first federal execution in almost two decades

Back in the business of executions

The Supreme Court ruled for the execution in a 5-4 decision. The four liberal justices dissented, as they had for the first case earlier this week.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that “proceeding with Purkey’s execution now, despite the grave questions and factual findings regarding his mental competency, casts a shroud of constitutional doubt over the most irrevocable of injuries.” She was joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.

A lower court injunction, issued on Monday ahead of the scheduled execution of another convicted child murderer, Daniel Lee, was overturned by the highest court at about 0600 GMT on Tuesday. Lee was executed a few hours later, the first federal execution in 17 years.

Early on Wednesday, US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington issued two injunctions, with one of them preventing the federal government from carrying out all scheduled executions.

The Supreme Court's decision blocked both those injunctions, allowing all the planned executions to proceed.

Two other men convicted of murdering children – Dustin Honken and Keith Nelson – are set to be executed on Friday and in August respectively.