Christopher Vialva and Brandon Bernard would be executed by the Federal Government for the murders of a couple
According to court documents Christopher Vialva and Brandon Bernard would force Todd and Stacie Bagley into the trunk of their car, shot both of them and then would set the car on fire. Todd and Stacie Bagley were visiting from out of State at the time of the murders and were picked randomly to rob
Christopher Vialva and Brandon Bernard would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Christopher Vialva was executed on September 24 2020
Brandon Bernard was executed on December 10 2020
Christopher Vialva Photos
Christopher Vialva FAQ
When Was Christopher Vialva Executed
Christopher Vialva was executed on September 24 2020
How Was Christopher Vialva Executed
Christopher Vialva was executed by lethal injection
When Was Brandon Bernard Executed
Brandon Bernard was executed on December 10 2020
How Was Brandon Bernard Executed
Brandon Bernard was executed by lethal injection
Christopher Vialva Case
A Black man was executed by the federal government Thursday for a crime he committed at age 19, even though his attorney said prosecutors used inflammatory racial stereotypes during the trial 20 years ago to land her client on death row.
The man, Christopher Vialva, 40, was executed Thursday evening at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. The Vigo County, Indiana, coroner pronounced him dead at 6:46 p.m., according to a statement from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
He was the first Black inmate put to death since the Trump administration’s revival of federal executions this year.
Vialva was sentenced to death in the 1999 killing in Texas of Todd and Stacie Bagley, a white couple who were youth ministers. There were 11 white jurors and one Black juror in the 2000 federal trial, said Vialva’s attorney, Susan Otto.
Prosecutors portrayed Vialva “as if he were the leader of a violent and well-organized street gang,” Otto said.
“Of course, in the year 2000, the theme of the super predator, that there were these kids that just marauded through our communities wreaking havoc, was a very powerful and very convincing narrative,” she said.
Otto said there was no evidence that Vialva was a leader or a real member of the so-called 212 PIRU Bloods gang. She said that he and his friends encountered the couple after Vialva was kicked out of his mother’s home and that, having nowhere to go, the group made a plan to rob someone.
“This is a product of a person, a child, with very disorganized thinking, in a full-on panic, surrounded by a bunch of other kids whose ideas are just as bad as his,” she said.
Otto said it was a very convincing narrative to frame to the jury that Vialva and Brandon Bernard, his co-defendant, who is also Black, were part of a violent gang. Bernard was also sentenced to death; his execution date has not been set, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
“I think it had a very strong impact on the jury’s decision to conclude that Christopher was a mad dog that needed to be put down,” she said. “I think, as time has proven, nothing could be further from the truth.”
Otto pointed to what she said was Vialva’s growth as a person during his time in prison, saying he studies a Messianic faith and has “overwhelming remorse” for his actions.
Otto also said that Vialva was developmentally about three years younger at the time of the killings and that when she met him in 2003, he was still struggling to read.
She had called on President Donald Trump to grant him clemency and commute his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-set-execute-black-man-double-murder-committed-19-n1240990