Daniel Lewis Lee was 47, and from Yukon, Oklahoma, he died by lethal injection yesterday morning at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
It was the first time the US government has executed a Federal inmate in almost two decades.
Lee was a white supremacist and was convicted in Arkansas for killings William Mueller, his wife Nancy, and their 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell in 1996.
His execution started after a series of legal steps that ended when the supreme court stepped in early Tuesday in a 5-4 ruling.
His last words were, "I didn't do it. You're killing an innocent man."
According to CNN
Daniel Lewis Lee, a convicted killer, was executed Tuesday morning in the first federal execution in 17 years after the Supreme Court issued an overnight ruling that it could proceed.
Lee was pronounced dead by the coroner at 8:07 a.m. ET in Terre Haute, Indiana. His last words were "I didn't do it. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life but I'm not a murderer. You're killing an innocent man," according to a pool report.
The Supreme Court cleared the way for the resumption of the federal death penalty in an unsigned order released after 2 a.m. ET Tuesday.
The court wiped away a lower court order temporarily blocking the execution of Lee in a 5-4 vote.Lee, a one-time white supremacist who killed a family of three, was scheduled to be executed Monday. A federal judge blocked the planned execution of Lee, and three others, citing ongoing challenges to the federal government's lethal injection protocol.Ruth Friedman, Lee's attorney, said in a statement Tuesday, "It is shameful that the government saw fit to carry out this execution during a pandemic."