A death row inmate who once asked to save part of his final meal for “later” reportedly endured an “excruciating” death during his execution, according to details revealed in an autopsy report.
Wesley Ira Purkey was executed by lethal injection in 2020 at the age of 68 after spending years on federal death row. He had been sentenced to death in 2004 for the 1998 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 16-year-old Jennifer Long in Kansas City, Missouri.
Jennifer was last seen on January 22 in school. When she never showed up for class, concern quickly grew. Purkey reportedly approached her outside a grocery store and convinced her to get into his pickup truck.
He then drove Jennifer to his home, where he raped and stabbed her to death. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Jennifer’s remains have never been recovered.
Wesley Ira Purkey
Purkey was also convicted in the killing of 80-year-old Mary Bales, a polio survivor he had met while doing repair work at her home. Prosecutors said he beat Bales to death with a claw hammer after visiting to fix a kitchen faucet. He was later arrested after neighbors reportedly spotted him trying to burn her body.
Years later, as Purkey prepared for his execution, reports said he requested pecan pie as his last meal and asked prison staff to save part of it for later – apparently not realizing there would be no opportunity to eat it afterward.
But according to a later autopsy, the execution itself may have been far more disturbing. The report found Purkey suffered from “severe bilateral acute pulmonary oedema” and “frothy pulmonary oedema in trachea and main stem bronchi” after receiving the lethal injection drug pentobarbital.
“He took my daughter’s last breath”
Medical experts explained that the condition causes fluid to rapidly flood the lungs and airways, creating what has been described as a sensation similar to drowning.
Dr. Gail Van Norman, a professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine, said the findings strongly suggested Purkey was still alive while the fluid buildup occurred.
“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,” she said, according to VT.
Purkey’s execution took place at a federal prison in Indiana. Before he died, he addressed Jennifer Long’s family in his final statement.
“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.”
According to The New York Times, Jennifer’s father, William Long, told reporters after the execution: “He needed to take his last breath, he took my daughter’s last breath.”
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