A U.S. district judge has ordered a new delay in federal executions, hours before the first lethal injection was scheduled to be carried out at a federal prison in Indiana.
The Trump administration immediately appealed, asking a higher court to allow the executions to move forward.
The executions, pushed by the administration, would be the first carried out at the federal level since 2003.
The new hold on executions came a day after a federal appeals court lifted a hold on the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee, of Yukon, Oklahoma, which is scheduled for 4 p.m. EDT on Monday.
He was convicted in Arkansas of the 1996 killings of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife and her 8-year-old daughter.
The comes after an appeals court lifted an injunction late Sunday that had been put in place last week after the victims’ family argued they'd be at high risk for coronavirus if they had to travel to attend the execution.
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