Appeals

Lisa Montgomery, 52, was killed by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, and pronounced dead at 1:31 a.m. (Eastern Time) Wednesday (article available here). She was the first woman to be executed by the federal government since 1953 and was the only woman on death row.

A federal judge granted Mrs. Montgomery a stay of execution Tuesday for a competency hearing -- just hours before she was scheduled to be executed.

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday ordered a stay of execution for Cory Johnson and Dustin Higgs, both of whom were scheduled to be executed on Thursday and Friday, respectively. "The injunction will remain in effect until March 16, 2021" to allow both men to recover from COVID-19 infections.

Maryland, where a federal jury returned a death sentence against Dustin Higgs in 2000, abolished capital punishment in 2013. That led the government to ask the court to amend its prior judgment and direct that Higgs be executed in Indiana, under Indiana law. His execution is set for January 15, 2021.

The federal government continued its series of post-election federal executions Friday by killing Alfred Bourgeois, the second Black man killed in 24 hours by the government (article available here). Mr. Bourgeois, 56, was pronounced dead at 8:21 p.m. Eastern Standard Time at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Brandon Bernard, a 40-year-old Black man sentenced to death at aged 18, was killed on Thursday by the federal government. He was pronounced dead at 9:27 p.m. and is the youngest person executed by the federal government in nearly 70 years and the ninth prisoner put to death since the current administration resumed executions in July following a 17-year hiatus (article available here). With his last words, Bernard spoke to the family of the victims, "I'm sorry.

Orlando Hall, 49, is the eighth inmate to be executed by the federal government this year after a 17-year hiatus on executions (article available here). A judge's stay over concerns about the execution drug gave Hall a reprieve, but for less than six hours. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the stay, he was killed via lethal injection late Thursday at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, where he was pronounced dead at 11:47 p.m.

The federal government executed the seventh person in a span of just over two months and the second this week (article available here). Christopher Vialva, 40, was pronounced dead shortly before 7 p.m. EDT at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

In a last statement, Vialva asked God to comfort the families of the couple he had killed in 1999, saying, “Father … heal their hearts with grace and love.”

Keith Dwayne Nelson was executed today, Friday, August 28, 2020 at 4:32 p.m. EDT, according to the Bureau of Prisons, marking the fifth federal execution in the past six weeks. The first four were Daniel Lewis Lee (July 14, 2020), Wesley Purkey (July 16, 2020), Dustin Honken (July 17, 2020) and Lezmond Mitchell (August 26, 2020).

The Justice Department reinstated federal executions in mid-July after a 17-year hiatus.

Lezmond Mitchell, the only Native American on federal death row is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to put his scheduled August 26, 2020 execution on hold while he seeks review of a lower court decision over potential racial bias in his case, additional information available here.

Today, Attorney General William P. Barr today directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to schedule the execution of Lezmond Mitchell, the only Native American on federal death row (article available here). The execution is scheduled to occur on August 26, 2020, at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. Tribal leaders and the victim's family oppose the death penalty.