The Justice Department can carry out its plans for the first federal execution in nearly two decades, an appeals court said Sunday, despite opposition from relatives of victims in the case who argued that the coronavirus pandemic made it dangerous for them to attend. 

The appeals court’s decision lifts an injunction that was temporarily blocking the execution and appears to clear the way for it to take place Monday as scheduled, though the relatives in the case quickly said they planned to appeal to the Supreme Court. 

A federal judge had issued the injunction Friday halting the lethal injection of Daniel Lewis Lee, who was convicted along with another man of murdering a family of three — including Nancy Mueller and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell — in 1996. 

The judge had sided with three of Mueller and Powell’s relatives — among them Mueller’s mother and sister — who had asked that it be delayed. The three relatives have said they do not support Lee’s death sentence but say they still feel obligated to attend. 

The case was brought by Earlene Peterson, Mueller’s mother, along with Kimma Gurel, Mueller’s sister, and Monica Veillette, Mueller’s niece. They have decried the lethal injection taking place during the pandemic, saying they have to choose between not attending or going despite health issues all three have that place them at greater risk should they contract the virus. 

In their court filings, the women argued that there was no reason to carry out the execution with the pandemic still raging, noting the risks they faced both traveling to Indiana, where federal executions are carried out, and going inside a federal prison, given the repeated coronavirus outbreaks behind bars. 

On Sunday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit lifted the injunction. Chief Judge Diane S. Sykes described the relatives’ legal arguments as “frivolous” in a 10-page order and said “they have no statutory or regulatory right to attend the execution.”

In the injunction issued Friday, a federal judge in Indiana said it appeared the Justice Department had not considered the relatives’ rights in the case. The Justice Department has argued that it was taking on numerous precautions to protect witnesses, including providing protective equipment such as masks and gowns.

Two other executions also planned for later in the week are facing legal challenges, including from spiritual advisers for the inmates involved, who similarly have argued that the danger posed by the pandemic leaves them forced to face infection if they try to carry out their duties. 

The case involving Mueller’s relatives was unusual in that it saw the Justice Department, which has invoked victims and their relatives in arguing for resuming federal executions, fighting against some of those same people in court. 

In one filing, the Justice Department said it takes the relatives’ viewpoints “seriously, in accordance with their terrible loss and distinctive perspective” but that “neither law nor logic” requires the Bureau of Prisons to factor in “the availability and travel preferences of those attending the execution when scheduling it.” 

The relatives, meanwhile, say they should never have been forced to decide whether or not to attend. 

“The families of victims should not be put in a position where they have to risk their lives or give up their right” to witness something like this, Monica Veillette, Mueller’s niece, said in an interview over the weekend, before the appeals court’s decision was released.

Veillette had planned to witness the execution herself but said Sunday after the appeals court ruling that she, her mother and grandmother were no longer going to the lethal injection, given the health risks. 

All three have said they oppose the execution, arguing that it is unfair that Lee was given a death sentence while his accomplice in the case was sentenced to life in prison. 

An attorney for the three women decried the appeals court’s decision on Sunday. 

“The federal government has put this family in the untenable position of choosing between their right to witness Danny Lee’s execution and their own health and safety,” Baker Kurrus, the attorney, said in a statement. 

Kurrus said the women “would have to put their lives at risk to travel cross-country at this time” and hope that the Supreme Court, along with the government, “will respect their right to be present at the execution and delay it until travel is safe enough to make that possible.”

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment Sunday about the appeals court’s decision. The department had also appealed to the Supreme Court earlier Sunday to lift the injunction, an appeal rendered moot by the decision a few hours later.

The department withdrew its stay application later Sunday evening.