The Navajo Nation Opposed His Execution. The U.S. Plans to Do It Anyway.

In 2003, Lezmond Mitchell was found guilty of carjacking and murder for stabbing a woman and her 9-year-old granddaughter on Navajo land in Arizona. Despite the gruesome nature of the crimes, the Navajo Nation, a federal prosecutor and even members of the victims’ family said they did not want the U.S. government to pursue the death penalty. But the Justice Department had other plans.

A mostly-white jury sentenced Mitchell—a Navajo man—to death, while his co-defendant, who was 16 when the crimes were committed, received life in prison. Mitchell’s life was then in limbo as the federal government ceased executions for nearly two decades.

That changed in July, when the Justice Department announced it would put Mitchell and four other men to death in December and January. “We owe it to the victims