A death row inmate suffered an agonizing execution in 2020, just hours after making a “mistake” involving his last meal request.
Wesley Ira Purkey, 68, was placed on death row for the kidnap, rape, and murder of 16-year-old schoolgirl Jennifer Long in 1998.
Harrowing reports detailed how Purkey lured his victim into his pickup truck outside a supermarket. The girl had last been seen taking skipping lessons on January 22.
Purkey then drove Long to his home, where he raped and stabbed her to death. He dismembered her body with a chainsaw, burned her remains, and smashed and scattered her bones in a septic pond to avoid detection.
Later in 1998, while working as a plumber, Purkey beat 80-year-old Mary Bales to death with a claw hammer. When he returned to her home to start a fire — meant to cover his tracks — neighbors saw him and grew suspicious, prompting them to call the police.
Purkey was eventually arrested and pleaded guilty to Bales’ murder. After being sentenced to life in state prison, he voluntarily provided information about Long’s murder in hopes of serving his sentence in federal prison instead.
However, reports note that Purkey failed to secure any promise regarding what sentence prosecutors would pursue for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Long.
He was ultimately found guilty of the crime and sentenced to death.
Purkey was executed in 2020 by lethal injection using pentobarbital.
His autopsy revealed he suffered from “severe bilateral acute pulmonary oedema” and “frothy pulmonary oedema in the trachea and main stem bronchi,” indicating that fluid rapidly entered his lungs and trachea.
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.”
In his final words, Purkey expressed regret for the murder of Jennifer Long, saying: “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 before Purkey’s execution, concerns were raised that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and was therefore 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 would be no “later.”
