US executes 2nd man in a week; lawyers said he had dementia

(AP) — The United States has carried out its second federal execution this week, killing by lethal injection a Kansas man whose lawyers contended he had dementia and was unfit to be executed.

Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death Thursday at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Purkey was convicted of kidnapping and killing a girl in Missouri before dismembering her body.

He expressed remorse right before he was executed, saying he regretted the “pain and suffering” he caused.

The Supreme Court cleared the way for Purkey’s execution to take place just hours before. Another man, Daniel Lewis Lee, was put to death Tuesday, ending a 17-year hiatus on federal executions.