Gerrard Kaonga
Warning: this article discusses Sexual Assault.
Wesley Ira Purkey died by lethal injection after being placed on death row and an expert has insisted the drug used would have caused excruciating pain.
Wesley Ira Purkey was placed on death row in 2004 following the kidnapping, raping and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1998.
The victim, Jennifer Long, was last seen at East High School in Kansas City, Missouri, on January 22 and concerns were raised when she did not attend her lessons.
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She had been lured into Purkey’s car before he took her back to his home. He had reportedly stabbed her to death, dismembered her body with a chainsaw, burned her body in a fireplace and placed her remains in a septic pond in Clearwater, Kansas. Her remains have never been found to this day.
Following this, Purkey killed an 80-year-old woman, Mary Bales, by beating her with a claw hammer. Thankfully he was arrested after neighbors saw him attempting to burn her body.
When he was executed in 2020, Purkey was 68 years old and suffering from dementia.
Due to suffering from the disease, it is not clear whether he understood what was going to happen to due to how he treated his final meal.
He had requested pecan pie as his last meal but asked to save it for later, seemingly unaware there would not be a later for him.
When it came to his execution, Dr Gail Van Norman, a medical expert has said Purkey likely experienced an ‘excruciating’ death rather than the intended painless death.
The autopsy of Purkey revealed that he had suffered ‘severe bilateral acute pulmonary oedema' and 'frothy pulmonary oedema in trachea and main stem bronchi’, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Van Norman said this would cause a near drowning experience that would likely be ‘among the most excruciating feelings known to man', and the filling of Purkey's lungs could only have happened while he was still alive.
He added: "It is a virtual medical certainty, that most, if not all, prisoners will experience excruciating suffering, including sensations of drowning and suffocation from [the lethal injection drug] pentobarbital."
Ahead of his execution, Purkey appeared to show remorse for his actions.
His final words were reportedly: “I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer's family. I am deeply sorry. I deeply regret the pain I caused to my daughter, who I love so very much. This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever."
William Long, the 16-year-old's father, had said Purkey needed to take his last breath for taking the life of his daughter, following the execution.