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As Donald Trump’s first term draws to a close, his administration has approved five new executions of people sentenced to death. It breaks with a 130-year tradition that an outgoing president does not carry out federal death sentences.
Last night, Brandon Bernard, 40, was executed by poison injection in a Terre Haute, Indiana prison. He was sentenced to death when he was 18 for a double murder in Texas in 1999. He is one of the youngest ever executed and the ninth after Trump gave the order in June.
Brandon Bernard with his sister and mother in prison before he was executed last night with an injection of poison.
Photo: Defense Team B. Bernard / MEGA / NTB
13 in a year
If all five federal executions are carried out, Trump will be the first president in more than 100 years to carry out 13 federal executions in one year.
It occurs after authorities reopened for this in July last year after a 17-year hiatus.
So the Trump administration may have executed a quarter of all those sentenced to death in federal prisons.
Terre Haute State Prison is the scene of at least one execution this week.
Photo: Michael Conroy / AP / NTB
Protester
This is happening with protests from both his own party, the Democrats, and many human rights organizations.
– This violates all the rules. And in a pretty extreme way, says Ngozi Ndulue, who runs the BBC’s independent Death Penalty Information Center.
Reality star Kim Kardashian appealed to President Trump and begged him to stop Bernard’s execution. She says on Twitter that she spoke to Bernard on the phone just before he received the poison injection.
Justice Minister William Barr defends the execution.
– I believe that the only way to stop the death penalty is not to sentence people to death. If a jury has sentenced someone to death, it must be carried out, Barr tells the AP news agency.
Started this week
Three men were executed in July and two in August. In September, two more prisoners were executed by injection of poison in the same prison. In November the eighth died.
Already on Friday, there are plans for the next execution.
Alfred Bourgeois, 56, is scheduled to be executed in Terre Haute prison on Friday. He is convicted of torturing and killing his two-year-old daughter.
Statewide, 22 prisoners have been executed in the past year. This is less than in previous years.
Support for the death penalty is declining
In recent years, more and more Americans have opposed the death penalty. Most states have eliminated the death penalty and have not implemented it in the last ten years.
According to a 2019 Gallup poll, 60 percent wanted the desired life in prison rather than the death penalty. It was the first time in 30 years that there was a majority for life sentences.
“Never before have so few supported the death penalty,” says Ndulue.
The last time so many were executed in federal jails and during a transitional period Grover Cleveland was president. In 1896 14 prisoners were executed.
Biden wants to abolish the death penalty
Incoming US President Joe Biden has said he opposes the death penalty. He promised to work to abolish the penalty method.
But he has said nothing about whether he will stop the execution of the current sentences when he joins the group on January 20.
Blacks are sentenced to death more frequently
African Americans are overrepresented among prisoners sitting in “death cells” awaiting execution, relative to the proportion of the population.
According to a report from the Death Penalty Information Center, 42 percent of them were black. They make up only 12 percent of the population of the United States.
The report also shows that there is a greater chance of being sentenced to death if you have killed a white American than if you have killed a black one. The statistics cover the period from 1970 to now.
