One reporter, two executions and haunting last words
By MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — The lead Justice Department and federal law enforcement writer for The Associated Press, Michael Balsamo, spent more than 32 hours inside a prison this past week — and watched two men die. Daniel Lewis Lee and Wesley Ira Purkey were among three convicted killers executed at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. The executions were the first carried out by the federal government in 17 years. In a first-person report, Balsamo describes the experience of waiting as their appeals played out, then watching as each condemned man lay strapped to a gurney, allowed last words, and then given a lethal injection of drugs.