Mitchell files motion to halt his execution
WINDOW ROCK
Lawyers for Lezmond Mitchell, who is scheduled for execution by lethal injection on Wednesday at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, have filed another motion to stop his execution.
Mitchell, 38, filed a complaint on Monday, along with a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to allow his clemency process to be completed.
Mitchell, a Navajo and the only Native American on death row, was convicted in 2003 and was sentenced to death for the 2001 carjacking and brutal killings of Alyce Slim, 63, and her nine-year-old granddaughter. Slim’s vehicle later was used in a robbery of a trading post.
Courtesy photo | Auska Mitchell via AP
This undated family photo, provided by Auska Mitchell, shows Lezmond Mitchell, who is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday for the 2001 killing of a grandmother and her granddaughter.
The 718-page complaint lists several defendants, including U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Office of the Pardon Attorney.
Mitchell argues his request for clemency is not being given enough time to be properly addressed and highlights the July 14 execution of another convicted killer, Daniel Lee.
Lee, a white supremacist, was convicted and sentenced to death for the triple murder of an Arkansas family in 1996. In Mitchell’s complaint, he argues Lee was executed as his clemency case was still pending at the time.
When Lee was served with a letter on July 29, 2019, informing him he was to be executed on Dec. 11, it did not give him enough time to file a clemency petition, which he says, violated his 30-day due process right.
Lee managed to stay his execution for one day but was ultimately executed after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it could go forward.
“By setting an execution date with such a shortened timeline, the Department of Justice has severely impeded the president’s ability to conduct his own deliberative process to bring Mitchell’s clemency petition ‘to completion,’ thereby depriving Mitchell of basic procedural safeguards,” Mitchell’s complaint said.
As Mitchell fights for his life in court, the victims’ family issued a statement through their attorney on Friday, saying they support the death penalty.
While tribal leaders have said Mitchell’s execution would harm sovereignty, federal law is clear that a carjacking resulting in death is subject to the death penalty no matter where it occurred.
On July 31, President Jonathan Nez sent a letter to President Donald Trump asking for leniency for Mitchell. Trump has not responded.
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