Federal government carries out first execution since 2003

Daniel Lewis Lee was a former white supremacist who was convicted in 1999 for robbing and murdering a family of three, including an 8-year-old girl. His execution was originally scheduled to take place on Dec. 9, 2019, but has been held up in court.

• Three family members of the victims sought this month to delay the execution because traveling across the country to attend would put them at risk of contracting the coronavirus. 
• Lee was pronounced dead at 8:07 a.m. on Tuesday.
• "I've made a lot of mistakes in my life but I’m not a murderer. ... You’re killing an innocent man," he said in a final statement.

The big picture: Attorney General Bill Barr instructed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to reinstate the death penalty last year after a 17-year informal moratorium, which was first established so the Justice Department could review its lethal injection protocols.