\n
\n A death row inmate who once asked to save part of his final meal for \u201clater\u201d reportedly endured an \u201cexcruciating\u201d death during his execution, according to details revealed in an autopsy report.<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n He then drove Jennifer to his home, where he raped and stabbed her to death. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Jennifer\u2019s remains have never been recovered.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u2013 apparently not realizing there would be no opportunity to eat it afterward.<\/p>\n But according to a later autopsy, the execution itself may have been far more disturbing. The report found Purkey suffered from \u201csevere bilateral acute pulmonary oedema\u201d and \u201cfrothy pulmonary oedema in trachea and main stem bronchi\u201d after receiving the lethal injection drug pentobarbital.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIt 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,\u201d she said, according to VT.<\/p>\n Purkey\u2019s execution took place at a federal prison in Indiana. Before he died, he addressed Jennifer Long\u2019s family in his final statement.<\/p>\n \u201cI deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n According to The New York Times, Jennifer\u2019s father, William Long, told reporters after the execution: \u201cHe needed to take his last breath, he took my daughter\u2019s last breath.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/body> A death row inmate who once asked to save part of his final meal for \u201clater\u201d reportedly endured an \u201cexcruciating\u201d 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Wesley Ira Purkey<\/h2>\n
\u201cHe took my daughter\u2019s last breath\u201d<\/h2>\n
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