On this date, September
24, 2020, Christopher Vialva was executed in U.S. prison in Terre Haute,
Indiana, by the US Federal Government. He was convicted of the 1999 murders of Texas
Couple, Todd and Stacie Bagley in 1999.
 |
Christopher Vialva, 40,
is set to receive the death penalty on Thursday at a federal prison in Terre
Haute, Indiana. He was convicted 20 years ago for the 1999 murders of two youth
ministers
Christopher
Vialva executed for 1999 murder of Texas couple, the seventh federal execution
since July
Michael Tarm
Associated Press
TERRE HAUTE,
Ind. — A man who killed a religious couple visiting Texas from Iowa was
executed Thursday, the first Black inmate put to death as part of the Trump
administration's resumption of federal executions.
Christopher
Vialva, 40, was pronounced dead at 6:42 p.m. EDT after receiving a lethal
injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
He was 19 years
old in 1999 when he shot Todd and Stacie Bagley and burned them in the trunk of
their car. Vialva's lawyer, Susan Otto, has said race played a role in landing
her client on death row for slaying the white couple.
Vialva was the
seventh federal execution since July and the second this week. Five of the
first six were white, a move critics argue was a political calculation to avoid
uproar. The sixth was Navajo.
In the video
statement released his lawyers released Thursday, Vialva expressed regret for
what he'd done and said he was a changed man.
"I committed
a grave wrong when I was a lost kid and took two precious lives from this
world," he said. "Every day, I wish I could right this wrong."
Vialva's mother,
Lisa Brown, spoke at an anti-death penalty rally Thursday morning across from
the prison where her son was later put to death.
"This is the
first venue I've had in which I could say to Todd and Stacie's family, I am so
sorry for your loss," said Brown, who was expected to witness her son's
execution.
Federal authorities
executed just three prisoners in the previous 56 years. Death penalty foes
accuse President Donald Trump of restarting them to help stake a claim as the
law-and-order candidate.
Otto said one
Black juror and 11 white jurors recommended the death sentence in 2000 after
prosecutors told them Vialva led a Black gang faction in Killeen, Texas, and
killed to boost his gang status. That claim, Otto said, was false and only
served to conjure up menacing stereotypes.
"It played
right into the narrative that he was a dangerous Black thug who killed these
lovely white people. And they were lovely," Otto said in a recent phone
interview.
| A portrait of Stacie and Todd Bagley on the tombstone of Stacie Bagley’s grave in Dyersburg, Tenn., on Sept. 18, 2020. |
According to court filings, the Bagleys were on their way home from a Sunday worship service during a visit to Texas when Vialva and his teenage accomplices asked them for a lift after they stopped at a convenience store — planning all along to rob the couple.
After the Bagleys
agreed and began driving away, Vialva pulled out a gun and told the couple:
"Plans have changed."
After stealing
their money, jewelry and ATM card, the teens locked the Bagleys in the trunk of
their car as they drove around for hours trying to withdraw money from ATMs and
seeking to pawn Stacie Bagley's wedding ring. The Bagleys pleaded for their
lives from the trunk.
The teens
eventually pulled to the side of the road and poured lighter fluid inside the
car. As they did, the Bagleys sang "Jesus loves us" in the trunk.
Vialva, the oldest of the group, donned a ski mask, opened the trunk and shot
the Bagleys in the head. Stacie Bagley, prosecutors said at trial, was still
alive as flames engulfed the car.
Questions about
racial bias in the criminal justice system have been front and center since
protests erupted across the country following the death of George Floyd
after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on the
handcuffed Black man's neck for several minutes.
Ruth
Bader Ginsburg becomes first woman to lie in state:8 other strides she made for women
A report this
month by the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center said
Black people remain overrepresented on death rows and that Black people who
kill white people are far more likely to be sentenced to death than white
people who kill Black people.
Of the 56 inmates
currently on federal death row, 26 — or nearly 50% — are Black, according to
center data updated Wednesday; 22, or nearly 40%, are white and seven, around
12% were Latino. There is one Asian on federal death row. Black people make up
only about 13% of the population.
INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/09/24/christopher-vialva-black-man-death-row-lawyer-argues-racial-bias/3519379001/
Todd and Stacie Bagley,
left and right, were murdered by Christopher Andre Vialva
OTHER
LINKS:
'I believe when someone deliberately
takes the life of another, they suffer the consequences for their actions, Todd
Bagley´s mother, Georgia, wrote in a statement released after the execution.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8770649/Feds-Black-inmate-death-execution-restart.html
A portrait of Stacie and Todd Bagley on the tombstone of Stacie Bagley’s grave in Dyersburg, Tenn., on Sept. 18, 2020.
https://www.facebook.com/VictimsFamiliesForTheDeathPenalty/posts/3145401272248484
https://theintercept.com/2020/09/20/federal-executions-christopher-vialva/
Candlelight for the two victims
https://www.facebook.com/VictimsFamiliesForTheDeathPenalty/posts/3152501258205152
https://www.facebook.com/LifesparkJustice/photos/a.2060617870925244/2738535539800137/
https://wikispro.com/christopher-vialva-wiki-bio-age/
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/122251488/todd-bagley
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/30076708/stacie-lynn-bagley
No comments:
Post a Comment