Justice Department asks to move ahead with execution of white supremacist who killed 8-year-old girl

The Justice Department on Saturday asked an appeals court to allow the execution of a white supremacist convicted of killing several people including an eight-year-old girl, part of Washington's push to restart federal capital punishments after nearly two decades. 

Daniel Lee was convicted in 1999 on three counts of murder in aid of racketeering. Lee had participated in the robbery and murder of an Arkansas gun dealer, along with the dealer's wife and stepdaughter. 

His accomplice, Chevie Kehoe, received three life sentences over the murders, yet federal prosecutors sought and obtained the death penalty for Lee. 

Lee's long-delayed execution was set to be carried out Monday, but Chief District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana ruled on Friday that the capital punishment would be delayed until the present coronavirus pandemic had ceased.

Magnus-Stinson cited worries that a gathering of witnesses to the execution might result in a coronavirus outbreak. Attorney General William Barr told media this week that the Justice Department feels it can carry out the execution "without being at risk." The department would reportedly require masks and temperature checks for all attendees. 

The Justice Department said that concerns about spreading the disease—which have been raised by family members of Lee's victims—"do not outweigh the public interest in finally carrying out the lawfully imposed sentence in this case."

Barring its being overturned, the injunction will be in place indefinitely until the danger of the pandemic has passed.

The last federal execution was held in 2003.