Wesley Ira Purkey

In 2020, Purkey was one of several condemned men on federal death row selected to be executed by the federal government of the United States. He was executed via lethal injection on the morning of July 16, 2020, following a delay due to concerns that he suffered from Alzheimer's disease and did not understand why he was being executed.

The execution date for Purkey was rescheduled for July 15, 2020. However, on that same morning, a judge halted the execution due to claims Purkey was suffering from dementia. The justice department filed an immediate appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. Purkey's lawyers argued he suffered from Alzheimer's disease and was not mentally fit enough to be executed.

In July 2019, the United States federal government announced that federal executions would return after a nearly two-decade gap since the previous execution of Louis Jones Jr. in 2003. Purkey was one of five condemned men on federal death row selected to be executed, with his execution scheduled for December 13, 2019. On November 20, 2019, U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan issued a preliminary injunction preventing the resumption of federal executions. Purkey and the other three plaintiffs in the case argued that the use of pentobarbital might violate the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994. In April 2020, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated District Judge Chutkan's injunction in a per curiam decision.

Purkey's trial began in October 2003. He admitted to killing Long, but denied kidnapping her. He claimed she was a sex worker who voluntarily traveled with him to Kansas, and that he lied about the kidnapping aspect to the murder to ensure a federal prosecution. On November 5, 2003, the jury found Purkey guilty of kidnapping a child resulting in death. After deliberating for 10 hours, they recommended a death sentence. Purkey was formally sentenced to death on January 23, 2004. He was transferred to the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana and was placed on federal death row.

On October 10, 2001, federal prosecutors charged Purkey with kidnapping a child resulting in death for Long's murder. Because Purkey's confession had no stipulations regarding sentencing, they announced they would pursue a death sentence. Upon learning that he faced possible execution, Purkey tried to retract his confession, but was unsuccessful.

In March 2000, Purkey pleaded guilty to felony first degree murder and aggravated robbery for killing Bales in Wyandotte County District Court. On April 28, 2000, he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 32 years. During his sentencing hearing, Purkey said he was high on cocaine at the time of the murder and apologized, saying "Words cannot express my remorse for this hideous and senseless murder." Bales's grandson, Lonnie Bales, called Purkey's statement a "sob story" and said he blamed everyone but himself.

On January 22, 1998, Purkey drove from his home in Lansing, Kansas to Kansas City, Missouri for a job interview with a plumbing company. Following the interview, Purkey smoked crack cocaine and prowled the streets in his white Ford pickup truck. On one street, he spotted 16-year-old Jennifer Long walking along the sidewalk. He pulled over and began speaking with her, asking if she wanted to party. She agreed and got into his vehicle, with the two of them driving to a liquor store to purchase alcohol. After Purkey bought Long some gin, he told her he needed to return home. Not wanting to go with him, Long asked to be let out of the vehicle, causing Purkey to retrieve a booming knife from the glove compartment, which he threatened her with. The two drove back to Purkey's home from Missouri to Kansas. Once inside, Purkey took Long to the basement, forced her to undress, then raped her. After doing so, Long attempted to escape. Purkey grabbed her and stabbed her repeatedly to death in the chest, face, and neck.

Nine months later, on the evening of October 26, 1998, Purkey, who was now working as a plumber, was called to the home of 80-year-old Mary Ruth Bales, a widow suffering from polio. The job was to fix a kitchen faucet at her home in Kansas City, Kansas. Purkey spoke with Bales and offered to do the job if she paid him immediately. She agreed and handed him some cash. Purkey left and used the money to hire a prostitute and purchase several rocks of crack cocaine. He and the prostitute went to a motel where they had sex and smoked for several hours. The following morning, the two of them drove to Bales' home. Purkey entered the house with a toolbox from his company van. He then attacked Bales and bludgeoned her to death with a claw hammer in her bedroom. Her cause of death was later determined to be blunt force trauma resulting from several strikes to her skull. After beating Bales to death, Purkey and the prostitute remained at the house for several hours, where they smoked more crack cocaine and ate food in the fridge.

On December 15, 1998, while awaiting trial for the murder of Bales, Purkey sent a letter to KCK Detective Bill Howard, saying he wanted to talk about an unsolved kidnapping and murder which had occurred earlier in the year. Purkey also asked Howard to bring an FBI agent with him. He said he was facing a life sentence in state prison for the murder of Bales, and wanted to be convicted of a federal charge so he could serve his time in a federal prison. Purkey had made enemies in the Kansas prison system, and overall believed that life in a federal penitentiary would be more comfortable than in a state prison.

In 1986, Purkey was reported to have changed and was staying out of trouble and working in a prison paint shop. He earned an associate's degree in literature from a community college, joined Alcoholics Anonymous, and took drug, alcohol, and mental health counseling. In 1992, counselors evaluated Purkey and found he was a classic psychopath; however, his education and intelligence seemed to moderate his antisocial tendencies. In 1996, a counselor concluded he had used his time in prison productively to help rebuild his life. The following year in 1997, Purkey's family and friends sent letters to the Kansas Parole Board asking for his release, arguing he had matured and was ready for freedom. Police, prosecutors, and Purkey's former victims objected to his release. The 1980 shooting victim, who was now partially disabled for life, told the parole board that Purkey should stay in prison for the remainder of his life. However, the board disagreed, citing that he had made good progress while incarcerated. In March 1997, after serving seventeen years behind bars, Purkey was released from prison.

Purkey was convicted of burglary in 1970, for which he received his first parole. However, he broke his parole and was sent back to prison. He was paroled again in 1980. Following his release on parole, Purkey, accompanied by a friend, robbed a man in Wichita at gunpoint. Purkey then shot the man twice in the head before fleeing. The man survived the shooting, and Purkey was sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison for aggravated battery, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated robbery. While in prison, records show he was violent and uncooperative. He was stabbed on two separate occasions by other inmates, one of which was over a drug deal.

Wesley Ira Purkey (January 6, 1952 – July 16, 2020) was an American convicted murderer who was executed by the United States federal government for the January 1998 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 16-year-old Jennifer Long. Purkey confessed to the crime while serving a life sentence for another murder, that of 80-year-old polio sufferer Mary Ruth Bales, whom he beat to death with a claw hammer in October 1998.

Wesley Ira Purkey was born on January 6, 1952, in Wichita, Kansas. As a child, he experienced repeated sexual abuse and molestation by those in charge of his care. At age 14, he was examined for possible brain damage. He reportedly suffered multiple traumatic brain injuries throughout his life, which began in 1968 at the age of 16 and again in 1972 and 1976, at the ages of 20 and 24, respectively. At age 18, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, as well as depression superimposed upon a preexisting antisocial personality disorder.