The Only Native American on Federal Death Row Faces Execution Wednesday

Lezmond Mitchell, who is scheduled to be executed at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind., for the 2001 killing of Alyce Slim and her granddaughter, on Aug. 26, 2020, in an undated family photo. Courtesy Auska Mitchell via AP

As the clock ticks toward the scheduled Wednesday night execution of the only Native American on federal death row, attorneys for 38-year-old Lezmond Mitchell are fighting on multiple fronts and pleading directly to President Donald Trump to commute Mitchell’s death sentence.

Late Tuesday night, the Supreme Court denied Mitchell’s motions to stop his execution. The federal district court in Washington also denied a request to halt Mitchell’s execution until after his petition to the president for clemency has had more time to be considered.