Trump Administration Puts Second Man to Death in Two Days

USA: Associated Press: The Trump administration continued its unprecedented series of post-election federal executions Friday 11th December 2020, by putting to death a Louisiana truck driver who abused and killed his two-year-old daughter. Alfred Bourgeois, 56, was pronounced dead at 8.21 pm eastern time after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. His lawyers argued Bourgeois had an IQ that puts him in the intellectually disabled category, saying 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”.

Bourgeois was the 10th federal death-row inmate put to death since federal executions resumed under Donald Trump in July after a 17-year hiatus. He was the second federal prisoner executed this week, with three more executions planned in January. Bourgeois met with his spiritual adviser on Friday as he sought to come to terms with the possibility of dying, and he was also praying, one of his lawyers, Shawn Nolan told the Associated Press just hours before the execution. “He certainly doesn’t want to die – and it’s harder for him to grasp being killed by the federal government. But he does get it that this is bad.”

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