WASHINGTON – The United States carried out its first federal execution in 17 years, putting to death an Oklahoma man who was found guilty of murdering an Arkansas family in the 1990s, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.
Daniel Lewis Lee was killed by lethal injection over the objections of the victims’ family after the US Supreme Court in a late-night opinion ruled that the execution could go ahead.
Before he was put to death, Lee reiterated that he was an innocent man, saying, “I didn’t do it. … I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I’m not a murderer.”
Under the US justice system, crimes can be tried either in federal courts – at a national level – or in state courts, at a regional level.
Last year, the Trump administration said it would resume federal executions.
