Posted on 12/11/2020 6:07:43 AM PST by Red Badger
Dec. 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. government on Friday plans to execute a man convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter nearly two decades ago.
Alfred Bourgeois, 55, is set to receive lethal injection at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. He's awaiting a Supreme Court decision on his request for a stay.
His attorneys said Bourgeois' execution would be unconstitutional because he is intellectually disabled and can't understand his punishment. They submitted evidence of IQ test scores of 70 and 75, as well as assessments by experts.
The Eighth Amendment bans executing people with such impairments as cruel and usual punishment.
The request for a stay comes one day after the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Bourgeois' application for a stay and denied his petition for a rehearing.
Bourgeois was among the first inmates slated for death last year when Attorney General William Barr announced the resumption of federal executions after a 17-year hiatus. A federal judge stayed his execution in March, saying his lawyer made a strong case for his intellectual disability.
Bourgeois was convicted in 2004 of capital murder for the 2002 death of his daughter in Corpus Christi, Texas. Prosecutors said the girl died when Bourgeois became angry with her for turning over her potty training chair in the cab of his 18-wheeler and slammed her head into the vehicle's window.
Investigators said he regularly physically and sexually abused the toddler before her death. Bourgeois said he was innocent of the child's death and blamed her mother.
If executed, Bourgeois would become the 10th federal death row inmate to be executed since July.
The last time a single presidential administration held that many executions was under President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s. The 34th president executed 10 people -- including the Rosenbergs, who were convicted of espionage -- over a seven-year period.
The U.S. Justice Department executed Brandon Bernard on Thursday and plans hold three more executions before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20. Orlando Hall was executed Nov. 19, more than a week after Biden was projected to win the presidency.
A group of anti-death penalty advocates protested the resumption of federal executions Thursday in a series of demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and Terre Haute. Death Penalty Action spokeswoman Allison Cohen told UPI that activists were especially concerned that executions were taking place after Trump lost his re-election bid.
Hall's execution last month was the first to happen during the transition of a presidency since 1880 under the administration of President Grover Cleveland.
"It's crazy that we are executing our federal death row prisoners during the lame-duck session," Cohen said, calling the effort "politically motivated."
“They submitted evidence of IQ test scores of 70 and 75, as well as assessments by experts.”
All is relative. A 70 IQ earns you genius status in prison. Thus, he is smart enough to die.
The cruel and unusual punishment is to the taxpayer who has to bear the cost of keeping these monsters alive, and fattening the purse of their lawyers, for decades.
Good, then he can’t be pardoned and released to do it again by the democrats.
When will the Ft. Hood terrorist be going?
The Eighth Amendment Prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, but it does not define what constitutes cruel and unusual. It is up to the courts to determine if a punishment falls under the Eight Amendment. As the appellate process has determined that the death penalty is appropriate, that determination has been made.
He was a 18 wheel truck driver. You have to study, take exam to get CDL to drive a semi. His intelligence level didn’t prevent him from passing the exam. I have a relative who is 40 and he knows right from wrong and his IQ is 69. So not buying he doesn’t understand.
Spot on! And nobody much ever brings up that very valid point. Every murderer executed proves that the state actually values the lives of their innocent.
Unless they are babies in the womb.
So let me get this straight, the guy has a 70 IQ, which they claim makes him so mentally impaired he cannot be considered to be a competent, functional adult, but yet the state and or feds still gave him a CDL which enabled him to endanger thousands of people’s lives by driving an 18 wheeler?
He was smart enough to torture a child. He’s smart enough for death
That "evidence" is about as valid as Dementia Joe’s “votes” in WI MI PA and GA.
In other words, they are fake, fraudulent and made up sh*t.
If he could take the CDL Test and pass, he can take the needle and pass.....................
The Death Penalty is lawyer welfare
media. Kill babies....fine
media. Execute someone for heinous crimes.....let’s tell you all about why we don’t like it.
For the record, I am neither an abortion proponent nor a death penalty proponent. I like the idea of a terrible person being incarcerated to life. But, the media can help giving you their opinion embedded in the story.
I passed the CDL test...and my IQ is 65.
I have never understood this. No, he doesn't understand his punishment just like he didn't understand that he was a murderous bastard. That makes him all the more dangerous.
“For 2nd straight day, U.S. gov’t to execute federal prisoner on Friday.”
Who writes these headlines?
Democrats?
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