TERRE HAUTE, Ind.–The prison in Terre Haute is the only place in the country where federal inmates are executed. Sister Barbara Battista, with the Sisters of Providence Catholic congregation, says that means the city is getting national press for the wrong reasons.
She believes the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee, for the 1996 murder of a family in Arkansas, was state-sanctioned murder.
“You know our hearts go out to Daniel himself, may he rest in peace, even though he was murdered by our government,” she said, following Lee’s execution at 8:07 a.m. Tuesday.
She also resents state resources being used to help block off a perimeter around the prison.
“An Indiana Homeland Security van was positioned near the prison,” she said. “The perimeter that was set was a very wide perimeter, with Indiana State Police officers at three different locations. I think as Hoosiers we need to know. I question how much money was spent in support of this awful act that the federal government just inflicted on Daniel Lee.”
Lee is no sympathetic figure. In January 1996, Lee murdered an eight-year-old girl, Sarah Elizabeth Powell, and her parents, William Frederick Mueller and Nancy Ann Mueller, as part of an effort to obtain funds for a
white supremacist organization.
After overpowering the Muellers, interrogating their daughter, and
stealing approximately $80,000 worth of cash, guns, and ammunition, Lee and an accomplice shot
the three victims with a stun gun, duct-taped plastic trash bags over their heads, weighed down their
bodies with rocks, and drowned them in the Illinois Bayou.
On May 4, 1999, a jury found Lee guilty of numerous offenses, including three counts of murder in aid of racketeering, and he was sentenced to death. Lee wanted the guns to sell in support of white supremacist causes.
Yet, the Sisters believe the act of executing anyone is immoral. Battista believes that the court battles that lasted through the night were also immoral.
“The fact that he had to go through this turmoil of am I going to be executed or not…is unconscionable,” she said. “The back and forth of the courts only just made it worse. I personally felt like we were playing with that man’s heart and soul. We were using him as an instrument, as a tool for political gain.”
Battista said she and other people “in the movement” will be out again in defense of both of the men who are scheduled to be executed Wednesday and Friday.
“We plan to stand as witness. We plan to vigil. We plan to do what we can to not let these acts go unnoticed.”