Daniel Lewis Lee Execution Delayed by Judge hours Before He was Set to Die

A judge has ordered the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee to be delayed, just hours before it was due to go ahead.

Daniel Lewis Lee, a convicted killer of Yukon, Oklahoma, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 16:00 local time on Monday at a federal prison in Indiana. He was convicted in the killing of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell in 1996.

Since his scheduled death execution, the victims’ family has opposed his death sentence, therefore filing a lawsuit to delay his execution for fears of the coronavirus.

A federal appeals court lifted the order after the family was granted an injunction.

After the courts blocked the death sentence from being carried out, the government appealed and it was overturned.

The judge on Monday, issued an injunction shortly before the lethal injection was scheduled to take place in Indiana.

According to Judge Tanya Chutkan, there were still unresolved legal challenges against the US Justice Department.

“The public is not served by short-circuiting legitimate judicial process,” Judge Chutkan said on Monday.