Mental Fitness Claim Halts 2nd Federal Execution

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) – A U.S. judge has halted the execution of a federal death row inmate whose lawyers argue suffers from dementia. Wesley Ira Purkey was scheduled to be the second inmate executed by the government this week after a 17-year hiatus. A judge in Washington, D.C., imposed two injunctions Wednesday, and an appeals court panel upheld one of them Wednesday night. But the Supreme Court has still to be heard from, and the execution still might proceed. Purkey’s lawyers say he can no longer grasp why he’s slated to die. Purkey, of Lansing, Kansas, was convicted of the 1998 killing of a girl in Kansas City, Missouri.