'He needed to take his last breath, he took my daughter’s last breath...'

'He needed to take his last breath, he took my daughter’s last breath...'

Victim's family says they waited too long for Purkey's execution

The family of the victim says they've had a long wait to see their daughter's killer take his final breath.

That wait only grew overnight... with the last-minute court proceedings.

News 10's dominic miranda was in the room when the family addressed the situation.

It was an eerily similar feeling this morning as to what happened with the first federal execution earlier this week.

I was teamed up with news 10's heather good throughout the duration of wednesday into the wee morning hours on thursday.

Let me walk you through my experience at the media center as we waited...and waited...and waited.

Heather was briefly escorted to the federal prison chamber around 5:30 wednesday evening.

The execution of wesely ira purkey kept getting pushed back due to legal back-and-forth.... heather finally called me back to the media center just after 2:30 thursday morning.

I arrived at 3 a-m...and that's when heather and the other media witnesses were escorted back to the federal prison chambers.

That was also the time we learned the supreme court had cleared the way for the second execution of the week.

However!!!!

Heather and i both waited for nearly 6 more hours in our respective locations for the litgation to be resolved.

But we weren't alone.

Jennifer long was the homicide victim of purkey.

Her family endured the long wait as well.

And when it was over...they agreed to speak to the media with their thoughts on the federal execution process.

"it just took way too long.

All these appeals.

Some of them he put through several times and then we sit in a van for 4 hours this morning while he did a bunch more appeals.

We just shouldn't have had to wait this long."

"there was obviously nothing wrong with him mentally because he remembered jennifer's name and apologized to us so apparently he wasn't mentally diminished."

Overall...it was a long...long night and early morning for everyone involved.

We'll monitor things again on friday... when the third execution is set.

For now...in the news 10 news room.... i'm dominic miranda.

News 10 you can find the family's full statement, the family's you can find news 10 you can find the family's you can find news 10 miranda.

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