People tied to next week's executions in Terre Haute sue federal officials to halt, citing COVID-19

People tied to next week's executions in Terre Haute sue federal officials to halt, citing COVID-19 risks

In for susan dinkel.

It's thursday, july 9th.

We continue our coverage of how the coronavirus is impacting the wabash valley.

The american civil liberties union and a lawfirm sued attorney general william barr and other federal officials.

It was on behalf of a priest who counsels "wesley purkey."

He's a prisoner set to be executed on wednesday -- if a court lifts his temporary stay of execution.

The a-c-l-u says the priest is religiously obligated to attend purkey's execution... but that doing so would put his health and life at risk due to covid-19.

They're bringing in people from all over the country, plane t ravel.

They're putting them up in hotels, having them eat at restaurants.

Then they're bringing them in the prison for days of training together, mixing with prisoners and each other, spreading the risk.

Others are trying to join the lawsuit.

We do want to note... we used the online media contact form to ask the department