A death row inmate suffered an agonizing execution in 2020, hours after making a “mistake” relating to his last meal request.
Wesley Ira Purkey, 68, was put on death row for the kidnap, rape, and murder of 16-year-old schoolgirl Jennifer Long back in 1998.
Harrowing reports detailed how Purkey lured his victim into his pickup truck outside of a supermarket, with the girl having last been seen taking skipping lessons on January 22.
Purkey then proceeded to drive Long to his home, before raping and then stabbing her to death. He dismembered her body with a chainsaw, burning her remains and smashing and scattering her bones in a septic pond to avoid detection.
Later in 1998, Purkey, then working as a plumber, beat 80-year-old Mary Bales to death with a claw hammer. After he returned to her home to start a fire – meant to cover his tracks – he was seen by Bales’ neighbors, who grew suspicious and called the police.
Purkey was eventually arrested and pleaded guilty to the murder of Bales. Yet after being sentenced to life in state prison, he voluntarily gave up information about the murder of Long in a bid to serve out his sentence in federal prison instead.
As per reports, however, Purkey neglected to secure any sort of promise over what sort of sentence the prosecution would pursue for his having kidnapped, raped and murdered the teenage Long.
Ultimately he was found guilty of the crime and sentenced to the death penalty.
Purkey was executed in 2020, by way of being given a lethal injection of pentobarbital.
His autopsy revealed that he suffered from ‘severe bilateral acute pulmonary oedema’ and ‘frothy pulmonary oedema in the trachea and main stem bronchi’, meaning that fluid entered his lungs and trachea quickly.
Speaking to News.com.au, Dr Gail Van Norman explained: “It is a virtual medical certainty, that most, if not all, prisoners will experience excruciating suffering, including sensations of drowning and suffocation from [the lethal injection drug] pentobarbital.”
Expressing regret for the murder of Jennifer Long with his final words, Purkey said: “I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer’s family. I am deeply sorry. I deeply regret the pain I caused to my daughter, who I love so very much.
“This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever.”
Shortly prior to Purkey’s execution, concerns had been raised that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and so was unfit to be executed. According to AP News, the inmate saw Bill Clinton on TV the night before his execution and said he would vote for Clinton in the upcoming presidential election.
The convicted killer also requested pecan pie for his last meal, but asked to have it “later”, unaware that there wouldn’t be a “later”.
