Attorney General William Barr has ordered the release of vulnerable inmates from three federal prisons. Buzz60

Fifteen years after Daniel Lewis Lee was sentenced to die for his role in the brutal slaying of an Arkansas family, a letter arrived at the Justice Department from a surprising source.

G. Thomas Eisele, the federal judge who presided over the case, conceded that he had often questioned his work during the combined trial, lamenting that Lees co-defendant, Chevie Kehoe, wasmore culpable yet was spared by the jury and sentenced to life in prison.

I frequently have second-guessed my own decisions in this case and wondered what, if anything,I could have done differently that might have resulted in a more rational outcome, Eisele, then 91 and retired, wrote in 2014. I have no doubt that all involved did the best they could at the time with the knowledge that they had. Still, the end result leaves me with the firm conviction that justice was not served in this particular case, solely with regard to the sentence of death imposed on Daniel Lewis Lee.

Death penalty: Supreme Court clears way for federal executions to resume

Daniel Lewis Lee waits for his arraignment hearing in the Pope County Detention Center Oct. 31, 1997, in Russellville, Ark.(Photo: Dan Pierce, AP)

The years of unease have not been solely Eisele's burden, despite his deaththreeyears ago. Dan Stripling, the lead prosecutor in the case, also has written about the arbitrary nature of the sentences returned against Lee and Kehoe, whose victims included an 8-year-old girl.

The loudest voices, however, belong to the victims closest family members, who dont doubt Lees involvement, but maintain that it would be unfair"to execute the 47-year-old once-avowed white supremacist while the undisputed ringleader servesa life sentence.

This is wrong," said Earlene Peterson, whose daughter,granddaughter and son-in-law were murdered. We feel Mr. Lees execution would dishonor the memory of my daughter, Nancy Ann, and my granddaughter, Sarah Elizabeth.

Barring a reprieve, Lee wouldbe the first person executed by the federal government in nearly a generation. His execution is scheduled forJuly 13 in Terre Haute, Indiana.

While the effective moratorium of 17 years has mostlycentered on disputes involving the drugs used to carry out lethal injection, Lees case the first of three scheduled in quick succession next week highlights a decades-long national struggleover the application of the ultimate punishment.

Battle for authority: DOJ says it has authority to carry out federal executions regardless of state rules

The execution room at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., is shown in this undated file photo.(Photo: Federal Bureau of Prisons/AP)

The timing of Lees execution also has become particularly fraught for many involved, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the country, particularly the federal prison system, where nearly 100 inmates and one staffer have died. At the federal prison complex in Terre Haute,where the federal execution chamber is located, one inmate has died and four others are infected, according prison system records.

On Tuesday, Peterson, 81, and two other family members went to court seeking at least a delay of executionuntil the virusthreat eases.Peterson and the other relatives plan to witness the execution even though they oppose it.

"They can't make it safe," said Peterson, whose doctor has advised her not to attend because of her age and underlying heart and lung conditions. "This now totally unfair."

Coronavirus risk:Death row inmate seeks execution delay, says coronavirus endangers Buddhist priest

Lee's attorney, Ruth Friedman, said Tuesday that the health risk could also prevent her from guiding her client through what could be his last moments alive.

"I don't know whether I can go there or not," Friedman said. "It's shocking that we are talking about doing this in the middle of a pandemic."

With few exceptions, state executions have largely ground to a halt since the first surge of the coronavirus earlier this year. Texas' death chamber, the busiest in the nation, has been dark since Feb. 6, though that could change if Wednesday's scheduled execution goes forward as planned.

Last month, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the federal governmentto resumeexecutions. The last federal inmate to be executedwas in2003, whenLouis Jones, a Gulf War veteran,was put to death for themurder ofanother soldier.

Attorney General William Barrannounced last yearthat the federal government would resume executions using the single drug pentobarbital. Thedrug is used in many but not all states.

Coronavirus outbreak: Hundreds of infectedinmateschallenging officials

Attorney General William Barr is sworn in before giving his opening statement before the House Judiciary Committee hearing about special counsel Robert Muellers report and his handling of the investigation.(Photo: Jack Gruber, USAT)

The justices denied a challenge from Lee and three other convicted murderers, who argued that federal executions must adhere to the specific protocols used by the states where each manwas sentenced, including the method of execution.

Fourteen states, led by Arizona, had sided with the Justice Department, tellingthe high court that pentobarbital "is a fast-acting barbiturate that can reliably induce and maintain a coma-like state that renders a person insensate to pain."

The American people, acting through Congress and presidents of both political parties, have long instructed that defendants convicted of the most heinous crimes should be subject to a sentence of death,Barr said last month. The four murderers whose executions are scheduled...have received full and fair proceedings under our Constitution and laws."

Bureau of Prisons: Feds reassign warden at Louisiana prison hit hard by coronavirus

At the time of the Barr's statement, Peterson and other victims' family members had publicly expressed their opposition to Lee's execution, yet the attorney general referred to the government's obligation to the family as a central reason for proceeding.

"We owe it to the victims of these horrific crimes, and to the families left behind, to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system," Barr said then.

Within days of Barr's statement, Peterson, who describes herself as a "Trump supporter,"appealed again to the administration to remove Lee from death row and assign him a life sentence.

"Please take our familys feelings into consideration and grant clemency to Mr. Lee," Peterson said. "Thank you and God Bless You.

There is no disputeover the heinous nature of the crimes that resulted in the deaths of William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her daughter, Sarah.

The family, according to court records, was targeted as part of 1996 robbery in which the pairsought to help fund the creation of a white supremacist community in the Pacific Northwest.

Plastic bags were placed over the victims' heads and secured with tape, while their hands and feet were bound. Their bodies were then dumped in a bayouafter being weigheddown with rocks. Kehoe, described by federal authorities as the more articulate of the two, was sentenced first and escaped the death penalty. Lee, who had lost his left eye in a bar fight, cut a more menacing appearance in court with a swastika tattoo on his neck.

FILE--Chevie Kehoe is taken from a police car after being extradited from Utah to Wilmington, Ohio, Thursday, July 17, 1997. Kehoe and two other men were indicted Friday, Dec. 12, 1997, by a federal grand jury in Little Rock, Ark., on charges they plotted to overthrow the government by killing public officials and police. (AP Photo/Tom Uhlman, File) ORG XMIT: LR102(Photo: TOM UHLMAN, Associated Press)

"Kehoe was unquestionably the leader of the organization and plotter of the (Mueller) murders," the lead prosecutor, Stripling, said in a 2014 letter to then-Attorney General Eric Holder, expressing his concern for Lee's death sentence. "Lee's role was that of the 'Aryan Hit Man.' Evidence presented at trialestablished that Lee killed the two adults but was unable to execute the little girl. ThisKehoe did after insulting Lee for his weakness."

When anArkansas federal court jury returned with a life sentence for Kehoe, Stripling said, prosecutors sought to withdraw their intent to seek death for Lee.

"The decision to seek DOJ approval to withdraw the capital designation in Lee's case was not lightly made," Stripling wrote. "I do not feel that capital punishment is inherently wrong or that death rows are teeming with innocent people. However, I find very disturbing the randomness with which defendants are charged, convicted, and sentenced in capital cases. This case perfectly illustrates this unexplainable randomness. Itis this unpreventable disparity in outcomes that convinced me that the Lee capitaldesignation should have been de-certified."

Eisele, the presiding judge, also believed that Lee's fate had been settled when Kehoe was sentenced to life in prison.

"It was surprising tolearn that this was not the case and that formal permission to withdraw the death penalty as toLee had to be received from Washington, D.C.," Eisele wrote in a separate letter to Holder. "It was even more surprising to learn thatpermission was being denied, in direct conflict with the recommendation of the local UnitedStates Attorney and her assistants in Little Rock, all of them very capable prosecutors."

Friedman, Lee's attorney, said the letters from the prosecutor and the judge are extraordinary.

(FILES) In this file handout mugshot obtained courtesy of the Spokane Police Department on December 6, 2019, shows an undated booking photo of Danny Lee in Spokane, Washington. (Photo by Handout / Spokane Police Department / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE(Photo: Spokane Police Department/AFP)

"This case is flabbergasting in many ways," Friedman said. "To have the judge and lead prosecutor in the case come the same conclusion and for the familywho was there every day at the trial to agree that's problematic.

"And they (the government) want to go forward in the midst of a pandemic who is this for?"

Although the Supreme Court shut down a challenge last week, Friedman said attorneys are pursuing other options, including unresolved issuesrelated to the lethal injection protocol.

In Arkansas, meanwhile, Peterson said the loss, the prosecution, the sentencing dispute and thewaiting has taken its toll.

Peterson said a nun who had been ministering to Lee during his time on death row had reached out to indicate that he had "turned his life around." Peterson said there has been no contact, however, with Lee directly.

"It's been a lot," Peterson said, emphasizing that her opposition to the Lee's death sentence should not be misinterpreted.

"He (Lee) is guilty," Peterson. "He does need to pay for what he did."

More: Coronavirus was Paul Manafort's ticket home. Many other old, ill, nonviolent inmates are still in prison

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/08/execution-federal-prisoner-daniel-lee-lewis-victims-opposed/5385998002/

More:

Re-opening federal death chamber: Victim opposition, pandemic threaten first execution in 17 years - USA TODAY