In true Trump fashion, he makes news yet again, as his administration plans to carry out five federal executions before inauguration day. The executions of one woman and four Black men will begin Thursday and end on Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday. The acts break a record in being the most federal inmates scheduled for execution during the last leg of a presidential term. The announcement was made just 60 days before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
In July 2019, after a 17 year hiatus, Attorney General William Barr resumed federal executions. Despite multiple appeals and petitions, 8 inmates have been put on death row this year. 5 more inmates have been scheduled to be executed before Biden’s swearing in ceremony. By the end of his term, the Trump administration will have authorized 13 executions in 6 months.
“What is clear is that this administration wants these prisoners dead before Joe Biden takes office. The only other time more than one execution happened during a transition was during Grover Cleveland’s first transition, from November 1884 to March 1885,” Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center Robert Dunham said.
According to federal law, the Bureau of Prisons cannot carry out executions until 60 days after the entry of death judgment.
The federal inmates scheduled for death include:
- Brandon Bernard, a Black man, is the youngest person to be scheduled for execution in 70 years. At 18 years old, he was convicted for the 1999 murder of a pair of youth ministers. His execution date has been set for December 10.
- Alfred Bourgeois, a Black man, was convicted for abusing, torturing, and ultimately beating his daughter to death in 2002. His execution date has been set for December 11.
- Lisa Montgomery, a White woman, is the first and only woman scheduled for execution in 70 years. She was convicted in 2004 for killing a pregnant woman. Her execution date has been set for January 12.
- Corey Johnson, a Black man, was convicted for killing seven people in 1992 as part of Virginia’s drug trade. His execution date has been set for January 14.
- Dustin Higgs, a Black man, was convicted for the 1996 killings of three women in Maryland. Although he did not kill anyone, he is alleged to have ordered the killings. His execution date has been set for January 15, Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday.
If the five take place as planned, that would be a total of 13 federal executions since July and would cement Trump as the leader who presided over the most federal executions in over a century.
