US sets execution of fourth federal inmate for Aug. 26
The US Justice Department on Wednesday set Aug. 26 as the execution date for the convicted killer of a 63-year-old woman and her granddaughter two decades ago, in what would be the fourth federal execution this summer after a 17-year hiatus.
Lezmond Mitchell, 38, who is a member of the Navajo Nation and the only Native American on federal death row, was convicted of killing Alyce Slim and her 9-year-old granddaughter during a carjacking in Arizona on Oct. 28, 2001.
He is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at the US prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
"Allowing Mr. Mitchell’s execution to go forward would be a grave injustice and an unprecedented affront to tribal sovereignty, and it should not be permitted to proceed," his attorneys said in a statement.
Mitchell and an accomplice were accused of stabbing Slim to death and then driving almost 40 miles (64 km) into the mountains with her body in the backseat of her pickup next to the child. He then ordered the girl out of the vehicle and murdered her, according to federal prosecutors.
Mitchell later confessed to the killings, the Justice Department said in a statement. His accomplice Johnny Orsinger, 35, is serving life in federal prison in Atlanta.
Mitchell had been scheduled to be put to death last December, but the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the execution while it resolved an appeal.
The court unanimously rejected his claim in April and denied his request for full-court rehearing earlier this month. The US government carried out its first execution in 17 years on July 14, putting to death convicted murderer Daniel Lee.
From 2003 to this year, protracted litigation over the drugs historically used in lethal injection executions prevented the government from carrying out the practice, according to Justice Department officials.
(Source: Reuters)
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