Trump administration accelerates execution of death sentences weeks before leaving power | World

So far, there have been nine federal executions, all this year. The tenth is scheduled for Friday (11), when 56-year-old Alfred Bourgeois should receive the lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

On Thursday night (10), the federal government executed Brandon Bernard in the same place. Three more executions have been scheduled through January 20, the inauguration date of President-elect Joe Biden, who has vowed to end the federal death penalty.

In the United States, federal executions are reserved for certain types of crimes, which are tried in federal court. They are often rarer than state executions, which apply to crimes tried by local courts in the 28 states that allow the death penalty.

This year’s federal executions, which began in July, are the first since 2003 and represent the highest number in a single year in more than a century, since 1896.

Before Trump, only three convicts had been executed in the so-called “modern era” of the federal death penalty, which began in 1988, when the practice was restored after it was banned in 1972.

“There is no precedent in modern history,” Ngozi Ndulue, senior director of research and special projects at the Center for Information on the Death Penalty, tells BBC News Brasil.

According to Ndulue, in addition to the high number, it is also unusual that the executions occurred during a pandemic of proportions never seen a hundred years ago and during the transition of power, following Trump’s defeat in the November 3 elections.

Executions are traditionally suspended during the presidential transition period.

On November 19, the execution of Orlando Cordia Hall, convicted of the kidnapping, rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1994, was the first in more than a century by a president in the so-called “lame duck” period. ”(When a new government has already been elected but has not yet assumed office).

Today, the United States has 54 people on federal death row, a small portion of the total of about 2,700 on death row in federal and state prisons.

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted many state governments to halt their executions to avoid the risk of contagion among prisoners, lawyers, witnesses, and officials at a time when Covid-19 outbreaks are occurring in prisons across the country.

As a result, only seven state executions were carried out this year. Last year there were 22.

But the pandemic did not discourage the federal government. The rhythm was not interrupted even after it was revealed that at least eight of the 40 officials involved in Hall’s execution in November tested positive for COVID-19.

The resumption of federal executions after a 17-year gap comes at a time when opinion polls indicate a gradual decline in support for capital punishment among the population. According to a Gallup poll published last year, 60% of Americans prefer life in prison as punishment for murder.

“In this context, the federal government took the opposite direction,” says Ndulue.

For some critics, Trump’s decision to resume federal executions was politically motivated in a year in which the president was running for re-election on a platform of law and order.

The first execution was that of Daniel Lewis Lee, 47, a white supremacist convicted in 1996 of participating in the murder of three people from the same family, including an eight-year-old girl. He was executed on July 14, despite requests for clemency from the victims’ families.

In interviews with the US press, Attorney General William Barr rejected the idea that the resumption of executions was politically motivated and defended its maintenance even after the elections.

According to Barr, it’s about complying with the law and enforcing the penalties that have already been imposed. The secretary recalled that previous governments, including that of Democrat Barack Obama, continued to seek the death penalty for some crimes, but simply did not carry out the execution of those convicted.

But the decision is controversial, especially because Biden, who in the past supported the death penalty, has already said he plans to end federal executions and encourage states to abolish the practice.

Despite their positions against the death penalty, neither Biden nor his deputy, Kamala Harris, have officially spoken out on recent executions. But other voices have called on the Trump administration to halt the executions.

This month, a group of 100 prosecutors, prosecutors and former Justice Department officials opposed the application of the federal death penalty and called for clemency for those convicted whose execution is scheduled for the next few weeks.

“The death penalty is applied unevenly and arbitrarily, is ineffective in promoting public safety and is a waste of taxpayer resources. And its use poses a dangerous risk of executing an innocent person, ”say the authors of the statement.

The authors also highlight the racial disparities in the application of the death penalty (both federal and state) in the United States. According to a DPIC report, since 1976, 296 blacks have been executed in the country, accused of killing white victims. In the same period, only 21 whites were executed for the death of black victims.

“These concerns are especially urgent in the midst of a global pandemic and demand racial justice,” they say, referring to this year’s protests across the country that draw attention to racism and police brutality against black Americans.

Appeals multiplied on the eve of Brandon Bernard’s execution on Thursday. He was convicted of participating in the 1999 kidnapping and killing of Todd and Stacie Bagley in Texas. Bernard was 18 years old at the time of the crime and sentenced to death in 2000, one of the youngest to receive the federal death penalty in the country.

Four other young people participated in the crime. Three of them were minors and therefore could not be sentenced to death. According to the prosecution, the leader of the group was Christopher Andre Vialva, who was 19 years old at the time and was executed in September this year.

Vialva shot the couple, who was trapped inside the trunk of the car, and told Bernard to set the car on fire. At trial, the prosecution said that while Todd was shot dead, Stacie was still alive and died of smoke inhalation. But an independent coroner hired by the defense said she was “medically dead” before the fire.

Bernard’s supporters called for his sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment, noting that he was not present at the time the couple were abducted, was not the author of the shots, expressed remorse and had exemplary behavior in the two decades that spent in prison.

In last-minute trials, lawyers argued that no evidence was presented at trial that could have swayed the jury to choose life imprisonment over the death penalty.

Five of the nine surviving jurors said they had changed their minds and supported the campaign, saying that Bernard should not be executed. Prosecutor Angela Moore, who defended capital punishment in the case, also publicly changed her position and called for the death penalty to be waived.

The campaign mobilized senators and celebrities, like Kim Kardashian West, and resulted in thousands of letters sent to President Trump asking for clemency. But the requests and demands were not enough to reverse the sentence, and Bernard was executed Thursday night at age 40.

According to the journalists present, his last words were addressed to the family of the victims: “I’m sorry. Those are the only words I can say that fully capture how I feel today and how I felt that day. ”

In a statement, Todd’s mother, Georgia, expressed relief at the execution, saying “it was very difficult to wait 21 years for the sentence imposed by the judge and jury on those who cruelly participated in the destruction of our children. “.

On Friday, the federal government is expected to execute 56-year-old Alfred Bourgeois, convicted of the death of his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter in 2002.

The execution was originally scheduled for January, but was postponed three times, following requests from the defense, which alleges that Bourgeois suffers from an intellectual disability.

Lisa Montgomery is due to be executed on January 12, after the start date of December 8 was postponed after her lawyers hired Covid-19.

She was found guilty of strangling Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was 23 years old and eight months pregnant. Montgomery cut off Stinnett’s belly and abducted the premature baby.

The crime occurred in 2004. Montgomery will be the first woman to be executed by the federal government in 67 years. Her lawyers say she suffered rape and abuse as a child that caused serious mental disorders.

Corey Johnson is scheduled to be executed on January 14 and Dustin Higgs on January 15, five days before Biden’s inauguration.