A man who murdered a religious couple visiting Texas from Iowa was executed Thursday, making him the first black inmate to be put to death as part of the Trump administration’s resumption of federal executions.
Christopher Vialva, 40, was pronounced dead at 6:42 p.m. EDT after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was 19 years old when he shot and killed Todd and Stacie Bagley before burning them in the trunk of their car. Vialva’s lawyer, Susan Otto, insisted that race played a major role in landing her client on death row for slaying the white couple.
Otto did not provide evidence that the move to execute Vialva was racially motivated.
Co-founder of The Federalist tweeted: “Vialva carjacked an Iowa couple on their way home from church. Vialva stuffed them in the trunk while he tried to raid their bank accounts and pawn their wedding rings. He shot them both in the head then set their car on fire with them in the trunk.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) took to Twitter following the decision to have Vialva put to death, tweeting: “Christopher Vialva is scheduled to be executed this Thursday, September 24 for a crime he committed as a teenager. NO ONE should be executed for a mistake they made as a juvenile.”
Vialva’s is reportedly the seventh federal execution since July and the second this week. Five of the first six were white, a move critics argue was a political calculation to avoid uproar. The sixth was Navajo. Again, the suggestion that it was motivated by race has not been substantiated.
USA Today attempted to soften the serious crime Vialva committed when he was legally an adult, saying that he expressed regret for what he had done and said he was a changed man.
“I committed a grave wrong when I was a lost kid and took two precious lives from this world,” he said. “Every day, I wish I could right this wrong.”
Vialva’s mother, Lisa Brown, spoke at an anti-death-penalty rally on Thursday morning across from the prison where her son was later put to death.
“This is the first venue I’ve had in which I could say to Todd and Stacie’s family, I am so sorry for your loss,” said Brown, who was expected to witness her son’s execution.
Federal authorities had executed just three prisoners in the previous 56 years, according to USA Today. Death penalty foes have accused President Donald Trump of restarting them to help stake a claim as the law-and-order candidate.
Otto continued saying that one black juror and 11 white jurors recommended the death sentence in 2000 after prosecutors told them Vialva led a black gang faction in Killeen, Texas, and killed to boost his gang status. That claim, Otto noted, was not real and only served to conjure menacing stereotypes, though no evidence was provided to disprove Vialva’s gang affiliation.
“It played right into the narrative that he was a dangerous black thug who killed these lovely white people. And they were lovely,” Otto said in a recent phone interview.
USA Today reported:
According to court filings, the Bagleys were on their way home from a Sunday worship service during a visit to Texas when Vialva and his teenage accomplices asked them for a lift after they stopped at a convenience store — planning all along to rob the couple.
After the Bagleys agreed and began driving away, Vialva pulled out a gun and told the couple: “Plans have changed.”
After stealing their money, jewelry and ATM card, the teens locked the Bagleys in the trunk of their car as they drove around for hours trying to withdraw money from ATMs and seeking to pawn Stacie Bagley’s wedding ring. The Bagleys pleaded for their lives from the trunk.
The teens eventually pulled to the side of the road and poured lighter fluid inside the car. As they did, the Bagleys sang “Jesus loves us” in the trunk. Vialva, the oldest of the group, donned a ski mask, opened the trunk and shot the Bagleys in the head. Stacie Bagley, prosecutors said at trial, was still alive as flames engulfed the car.
Questions about racial bias in the criminal-justice system have been front and center since protests erupted across the country following the death of George Floyd after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on the handcuffed Black man’s neck for several minutes.