Judge orders delay in first federal execution in 17, hours before the injection

On Monday morning, a judge ordered a delay in the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee, initially set for later this afternoon.

The execution of convicted killer Daniel Lewis Lee was scheduled for Monday. However, a ruling Friday put the plan on hold following a lawsuit brought by the family of the victims, requesting a delay due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

A ruling Sunday by the Seventh District U.S. Court of Appeals allowed the execution to go forward on Monday, as planned. But the family's attorney will made an eleventh-hour appeal to the Supreme Court, and the execution was put on hold Monday morning.

Baker Kurrus, the family's lawyer, said in a statement, "The federal government has put this family in the untenable position of choosing between their right to witness Danny Lee's execution and their own health and safety."

Lee, a white supremacist, who killed a family of three and dumped their bodies in a lake after torturing them, was originally scheduled for execution in December of last year, but the case was delayed after courts blocked the death sentence from being carried out.

Lee's execution will mark the restart of the federal government's ability to carry out death sentences, following a series of court decisions in recent months. 

Last year, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court's decision to prevent the death sentence from being carried out. However, in April, an appeals court ruled that executions could move forward. And Attorney General William Bar set June dates for the deaths of four men.