Trump Admin Executes Man Who Severely Abused, Murdered His Own 2-Year-Old Daughter
The Trump administration plans to continue its federal executions on Friday by putting to death a Louisiana truck driver who severely abused his 2-year-old daughter for weeks in 2002, then killed her by slamming her head against a truck’s windows and dashboard.
Lawyers for 56-year-old Alfred Bourgeois say he is intellectually disabled and they contend that should have made him ineligible for the death penalty under federal law.
Bourgeois would be the 10th federal inmate put to death since federal executions resumed under President Donald Trump in July after a 17-year hiatus. He would be the second person executed this week at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Three more executions are planned in January.
Several appeals courts have concluded that neither evidence nor criminal law on intellectual disability support the claims by Bourgeois’ legal team.
On Thursday, Brandon Bernard was put to death for his part in the 1999 killing of a couple from Iowa.
He and other members of a street gang abducted and robbed Todd and Stacie Bagley in Texas before shooting them, dumping their bodies in a trunk and setting the vehicle on fire. Bernard was 18 at the time of the murders.
Several high-profile figures have drawn attention to Bernard’s case.
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian West had appealed to Trump to commute his sentence to life in prison, citing, among other things, Bernard’s youth at the time and the remorse he has expressed.
Democratic New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called his execution “absolutely sickening” and called for an end to the death penalty in a Friday tweet.
This is absolutely sickening. Brandon Bernard should still be alive.
Abolish the death penalty. https://t.co/5QdAZTc4J4
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) December 11, 2020
Brandon Bernard should be alive today. We must end all federal executions and abolish the death penalty. In a world of incredible violence, the state should not be involved in premeditated murder. https://t.co/TeppKF667T
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) December 11, 2020
In Bourgeois’ case, the crimes stand out as particularly brutal because they involved his young daughter.
According to court filings, he gained temporary custody of the child, referred to in court papers only as “JG,” after a 2002 paternity suit from a Texas woman. Bourgeois was living in Louisiana at the time with his wife and their two children.
Over the next month, Bourgeois whipped the girl with an electrical cord, burned her feet with a cigarette lighter and hit her head with a plastic baseball bat so hard that her head swelled. He refused to seek medical treatment for her, court documents say. Prosecutors also said he sexually abused her.
Her toilet training allegedly enraged Bourgeois, and he would sometimes force her to sleep on a training toilet.
On a trucking run to Corpus Christi, Texas, he grabbed the toddler by her shoulders and slammed her head on the windows and dashboard four times, court filings say. She died the next day in a hospital of brain injuries.
After his 2004 conviction in federal court in southern Texas, a judge rejected claims stemming from his alleged intellectual disability, noting he did not receive a diagnosis until after he had been sentenced to death.
“Up to that point, Bourgeois had lived a life which, in broad outlines, did not manifest gross intellectual deficiencies,” the court said.
Attorneys argued that Bourgeois had an IQ around 70, well below average, and that his childhood history confirmed their claims of his disability.
On Thursday night, as Bernard lay on a gurney before receiving the lethal injection, he directed his last words to the family of the couple he helped kill.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “That’s the only words that I can say that completely capture how I feel now and how I felt that day.”
“I wish I could take it all back, but I can’t.”
Todd Bagley’s mother, Georgia, spoke to reporters within 30 minutes of the execution, saying she wanted to thank Trump, Attorney General William Barr and others at the Justice Department for helping to bring her family closure.
She became emotional when she spoke about the apologies from Bernard and from an accomplice, Christopher Vialva, the ringleader of the group who shot the Bagleys before the car was burned. He was executed in September.
“The apology and remorse … helped very much heal my heart,” she said. “I can very much say: I forgive them.”
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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