Iowa convicted killer, drug kingpin set for federal execution Friday, third in week

A convicted drug dealer and killer is set on Friday to become the third inmate to be executed this week, following a 17-year pause in federal executions.

Dustin Honken, 52, was sentenced to death in 1993 for killing government informants and children, including two young girls, to stop his drug trafficking prosecution, according to the Associated Press.

Honken, of Iowa, is set to die by a lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he’s been on death row for roughly the past 15 years.

His lawyers are making last-minute legal pleas to stop the executions, as attorneys for the other two inmates to die by injection did this week.

Daniel Lewis Lee was executed Tuesday morning, and Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death two days later, each after hours of legal wrangling that the Supreme Court ended with 5-4 votes, the wire service also reports.