The first execution by the US federal government in 17 years still stands, for now

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(CNN) — The Court of Appeals of U.S The Seventh District issued a ruling Sunday that will allow the first execution of a federal prisoner in 17 years this Monday, unless a possible appeal to the country’s Supreme Court is advanced.

The execution of Daniel Lewis Lee, convicted of murder, was scheduled for Monday, but he was suspended by a lower court decision Friday after the family filed a lawsuit requesting a delay due to the pandemic of coronavirus and his fear of exposing himself by witnessing the execution.

The Seventh Circuit decision allows Monday’s execution to move forward, for now, but the family will file a last-minute appeal with the Supreme Court, according to their lawyer.

“The federal government has put this family in an unsustainable position to choose between their right to witness the execution of Danny Lee and their own health and safety,” attorney Baker Kurrus said in the statement.

The execution of Lee, a former white supremacist who killed a family of three, was originally scheduled for December, but the case was delayed after courts blocked execution of the death sentence.

Earlene Peterson – whose daughter, granddaughter, and son-in-law were tortured, killed, and thrown into a lake by Lee and an accomplice – have opposed Lee’s execution. Last year she told CNN that she did not want it done on her behalf.

In a separate filing in front of the court on Sunday, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) announced that one of its officials tested positive for coronavirus Saturday at Terre Haute Prison, Indiana, where it is scheduled. the execution. The office insisted, however, that the virus mitigation efforts were effective and that the official had never been to the execution chamber.

Still, even in an effort to mitigate the spread of the virus by BOP, the executions are awaiting a federal court order.

Lee’s scheduled execution is long overdue as the time when the federal government will once again begin to serve the sentences of death row inmates, after a series of court decisions in recent months.

In December, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision that blocked the execution of the death penalty last year. But an appeals court decided in April that executions could move forward, and the United States attorney general, William Barr, set new dates for Lee and three other men in June.

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