The Navajo Nation man who was convicted of the 2001 gruesome murders of a woman and her granddaughter was executed in an Indiana prison Wednesday.
“No, I’m good,” Lezmond Mitchell said when asked if he had any last words before receiving a lethal injection Wednesday, The Indianapolis Star reported.
In 2003, a federal jury found Mitchell, 38, guilty of the murders of 63-year-old Alyce Slim and her nine-year-old granddaughter in Arizona, U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson Kerri Kupec said in a statement Wednesday. Mitchell, alongside an accomplice, carjacked Slim’s pickup truck, stabbed her 33 times, drove to a remote area, slit her granddaughter’s throat, then dismembered and buried them both.
Following his arrest in 2001, Mitchell admitted to the murders and informed law enforcement officers of the location of the bodies, according to Kupec. (RELATED: ‘Code Talkers’: Navajo Nation Submits Bid For Redskins New Name)
“Nearly 19 years after Lezmond Mitchell brutally ended the lives of two people, destroying the lives of many others, justice finally has been served,” Kupec said. “In attendance at the execution this evening were representatives of the victims’ families as well as the father of the nine-year-old girl that Mitchell murdered.”
The Federal Corrections Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana where Lezmond Mitchell was executed Wednesday. (Bryan Woolston/Reuters/File Photo)
Family members of the victims supported capital punishment being administered, according to Kupec.
“I have waited 19 years to get justice for my daughter, Tiffany,” attorney Colleen Clase said on behalf of Daniel Lee, father of the 9-year-old, according to The Star. “I will never get Tiffany back, but I hope that this will bring some closure.”
Lee thanked President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr along with the federal agencies who played a role in Mitchell’s arrest and conviction, The Star reported.
“If it had not been for the Trump administration, I do not think I would have ever received justice or a sense of finality,” Clase said on behalf of Lee, according to The Star.
However, the Navajo Nation objected to the execution. They argued that the government’s decision to execute Mitchell violated Navajo Nation sovereignty.
“The Navajo Nation’s position, from the beginning, was to advocate for the sovereign status of the Nation,” said Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer in a joint statement.
“Our decision not to accept the death penalty in federal cases remains a Navajo decision, but in this instance the federal government ignored the Navajo Nation. This is an affront to our Nation because we should be the ones to decide these matters.”
Nez asked Trump to spare Mitchell in an Aug. 11 letter, according to Reuters. Rather, he argued that Mitchell should be sentenced to life in prison.
Mitchell wasn’t accompanied by any relatives during his execution, The Star reported.
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