Lawyers for a federal prisoner form Kansas scheduled to be put to death next month are asking a judge to halt the execution because the prisoner has Alzheimer’s disease and Schizophrenia. Wesley Purkey’s lawsuit was filed late Tuesday in Washington. His execution is scheduled for December 13th. Purkey is among five men whose executions were set by Attorney General William Barr in July. A judge has temporarily halted the executions. The Justice Department is appealing. The suit alleges that Purkey of Lansing, was sentenced to death for the 1998 killing of Jennifer Long after picking her up in Kansas City, Missouri. Purkey raped Long, stabbed her repeatedly and used a chainsaw to cut her body into pieces then burned her remains in a fireplace. He dumped her ashes 200 miles away in a septic pond Southwest of Wichita.
