Thread by @LilianaSegura

For the 5th time since last month, I’m outside the FCC Terre Haute training center. The Trump administration plans to kill Keith Dwayne Nelson in just over an hour. Media witnesses have not left yet. But I did see Nelson’s spiritual advisor being escorted to the prison earlier.

Media witnesses are kept separate from non-witnessing press at this makeshift media center. But in a briefing earlier we were told the family of Nelson’s victim, 10-year-old Pamela Butler, will address reporters afterward. As far as any stays, BOP says “there are no impediments.”

Eight media witnesses just filed into the two vans, which are pulling away now. A number of these reporters have witnessed all four federal executions before today. A few more witnessed the execution of Lezmond Mitchell on Wednesday.

As I mentioned last time, the ACLU has sued for information on the impact of the previous executions on the Covid numbers here. Vigo County has seen numbers go up and up. At the training center, they take my temp and provide blue surgical masks and sanitizer. And signage.

Nelson pleaded guilty. But his lawyers raise familiar concerns. "The jury returned a death verdict without hearing about his severe organic brain damage...mental illness, or the unimaginable physical and sexual traumas he suffered throughout his childhood and adolescence."

According to Nelson's attorneys, "Even the lone prosecution expert’s testing demonstrated that Keith’s frontal lobe dysfunction places him near the bottom 1% of the population in terms of his executive functioning."

Then there is the concern over the method of execution. A preliminary autopsy for Wesley Purkey, who was killed last month, showed signs of pulmonary edema, a red flag in numerous executions by lethal injection, including those carried out w/pentobarbital. deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/autopsy-r…

As before, activists under the banner of Terre Haute Death Penalty Resistance are gathered across from the prison, next to the Dollar General. Abe Bonowitz of @DeathPenaltyAct repeats his familiar refrain. “We remember the victims, but not with more killing.”

As activists tolled the bell at 4pm I asked some customers coming out of the Dollar General how they feel about the executions. One man said he’s indifferent, another angrily said he’s sick of the protests. A man in a Trump/Pence mask said he thinks the condemned deserve to die.

One woman said that she does not condone what any of the men did, but said it is up to God to decide their fates. She doesn’t believe in the death penalty. (I was then told by the Dollar General staff that they were getting complaints about me. But they were very nice about it!)

Just got the email from BOP spokesperson: "Please report back to the Media Center at this time if you choose to." The execution of Keith Nelson is almost certainly complete.

Pamela Butler’s mother and two daughters took questions from the press for about 9 minutes. They said they’ll now be at peace and described Pamela as a child who was well loved and who adored animals. They believe Keith Nelson was remorseless to the end. He had no last words.

An addendum to correct an earlier tweet: There were 6 media witnesses today. Fewer than previous executions. Like last time, I was rejected as a witness for both executions this week. I haven’t gotten an explanation from BOP as to the process used to select media witnesses.