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The Trump administration continued its unprecedented series of post-election federal executions by killing a Louisiana truck driver who severely abused and later killed his two-year-old daughter in 2002.
Alfred Bourgeois (56) was executed Friday night after receiving a lethal injection in a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
His lawyers argued that Bourgeois had an IQ that placed him in the category of intellectually disabled, and said that should have made him ineligible for the death penalty under federal law.
Victor J. Abreu said it was “shameful” to execute his client “without fair consideration of his intellectual disability.”
In his last words, Bourgeois, who was found to have killed his daughter by banging her head against the windows and dash of a truck, was unapologetic and instead adopted a deeply defiant tone, insisting that he did not kill or sexually abuse of the girl.
“I ask God to forgive all those who conspired and conspired against me, and placed false evidence,” he said, adding: “I did not commit this crime.”
Alfred Bourgeois, who was executed in Indiana. Bourgeois, a Louisiana trucker who severely abused his 2-year-old daughter for weeks in 2002, then killed her by banging her head against the windows and dash of a truck. Photo: Nueces County Sheriff’s Office via AP
Bourgeois was the 10th federal inmate to be sentenced to death since federal executions under US President Donald Trump resumed in July after a 17-year hiatus. He was the second federal prisoner to be executed this week, and three more executions were planned for January.
The last time the number of civilians executed at the federal level was in double digits in a year was under President Grover Cleveland, with 14 in 1896.
The series of executions under Trump’s tenure since Election Day, the first in late November, is also the first time in more than 130 years that federal executions have occurred during a period of failure. Cleveland was also the last president to do that.
Bourgeois’s lawyers contend that the apparent rush by Trump, a Republican, to carry out the executions before the January 20 inauguration of Joe Biden, who has voiced his opposition to the death penalty, has deprived his client of their right to exhaust their legal options.
The justice department notified Bourgeois just 21 days in advance that he was going to be executed under protocols that reduce the required notice period from 90 days, his attorney Shawn Nolan said.
“It’s extraordinary. Speeding up these executions during the pandemic and everything else makes absolutely no sense, ”he said.
Several appeals courts have found that neither the evidence nor criminal law on intellectual disabilities supports the claims of Bourgeois’ legal team.
On Thursday, Brandon Bernard was executed for his role in the 1999 murder of an Iowa religious couple after he and other teen gang members kidnapped and robbed Todd and Stacie Bagley in Texas.
Bernard, who was 18 at the time of the murders, was a rare execution of a person who was in his late teens when his crime was committed.
Several high-profile figures, including reality TV star Kim Kardashian West, called on Trump to commute Bernard’s sentence to life in prison, citing, among other things, his youth at the time and the remorse he has expressed for years. – AP
