Navajo on death row to be killed in December

Lezmond Mitchell, a Navajo on death row, will be put to death by lethal injection for killing a Navajo elder woman and her grandchild.  In 2003, Mitchell was picked up as a hitchhiker when he killed the woman stabbing her 33 times.  He forced the granddaughter to sit next to the deceased grandmother for half an hour before cutting her throat and killing her.  After that he went off to rob a store.  The Navajo Nation and the victims’ family were opposed to the death penalty. Recently, under the Trump Administration, the US Attorney General  reinstated the death penalty in federal prison.  Unless there is a successful legal challenge, Mr. Mitchell will be be executed in December 2019.  (story)