Federal officials put to death a meth kingpin convicted of killing five people, the third execution in a week in the Trump administration’s restart of the federal death penalty after a 17-year break, the Wall Street Journal reports. Dustin Honken, 52, was pronounced dead by lethal injection late Friday at the federal prison in Terre Haute, In. Honken ran a methamphetamine operation. He was convicted in 2004 of fatally shooting five people in Iowa in 1993—two associates, the girlfriend of one of them, and her 10- and six-year-old daughters—whom he believed were witnesses to his drug dealing.
Daniel Lee, 47, and Wesley Purkey, 58, were executed after early morning Supreme Court opinions rejected last-minute appeals. The court also rejected arguments from spiritual advisers to Purkey and Honken that the executions should be put off because of coronavirus concerns. Keith Dwayne Nelson, who was convicted of kidnapping and raping a 10-year-old girl before killing her, is scheduled to be executed Aug. 28. Honken’s lawyer, Shawn Nolan, said he had repented in prison and reformed through his Catholic faith. “The Dustin Honken they wanted to kill is long gone,” Nolan said. President Donald Trump strongly supports capital punishment and his administration has prioritized the resumption of federal executions, putting it at odds with national trends that have seen use of and public support for capital punishment decline. Trump’s expected Democratic opponent former Vice President Joe Biden, has said he would seek to repeal the federal death penalty and encourage states to do so.