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Oklahoma Man Put To Death As U.S. Carries Out First Federal Execution In 17 Years

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (CBSNEWS.COM) — The U.S. government on Tuesday carried out the first federal execution in almost two decades, putting to death a man who killed an Arkansas family in a 1990s in a plot to build a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest. The execution came over the objection of the victims' family.

Daniel Lewis Lee, 47, of Yukon, Oklahoma, died by lethal injection at the federal prison in Indiana. The decision to move forward with the execution -- the first by the Bureau of Prisons since 2003 -- drew scrutiny from civil rights groups and the relatives of Lee's victims, who had sued to try to halt it, citing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the AP's Mike Balsamo, who witnessed the execution, Lee was strapped to a gurney wearing a brown shirt with an IV in his left arm.

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