Daniel Lewis Lee: First US federal execution in 17 years of white-supremacist scheduled

The first federal execution in the United States in 17 years is scheduled to take place on July 13 after an appeals court overturned a hold on the death penalty by a lower court. According to reports, a white-supremacist Daniel Lewis Lee, who killed a family of three in 1996 was given a death penalty by the federal court, which is supposed to take place at the US Department of Justice's execution chamber in Indiana despite some relatives of the victims opposed his death sentence. The last federal execution occurred in 2003 that was carried out by lethal injection. 

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Daniel Lewis Lee's execution was originally scheduled to take place in December last year but was delayed after courts blocked executions from being carried out. Then Lee's execution was supposed to take place on July 10 but was stayed again after relatives of the victims sued court saying that them attending the execution could expose them to coronavirus. However, the injunction was overturned after an appeal by the government. According to the US Death Penalty Information Center, about 60 prisoners are on the federal death row, most of whom are being tried for crimes against children. 

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US judiciary system

In the US judiciary system, federal courts are national-level courts that can hear certain types of cases or cases based on the severity of the crimes or involving citizens of different states or cases in which the United States is a party, while the state courts are regional-level courts and can only hear cases involving citizens and laws of their state or city. The Supreme Court of the United States held the federal death penalty unconstitutional in 1972 but allowed states to retore it in 1976. However, the federal death penalty was not reinstated until 1998 and since then only three executions have been carried out, of the 78 people who were given the death sentence. 

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(Image Credit: AP)