TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Alfred Bourgeois became the 10th federal prisoner -- and the second in as many days -- put to death under the Trump administration this year as he was executed by lethal injection on Friday night.
Bourgeois, 56, was executed at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was pronounced dead at 8:21 p.m. ET.
A last-minute appeal was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court, The Associated Press reported. Bourgeois was executed a day after Brandon Bernard was put to death.
The execution of Alfred Bourgeois has concluded. He was pronounced dead at 8:21 p.m. https://t.co/rfTpNR0yIR
— Mike Balsamo (@MikeBalsamo1) December 12, 2020
Three more executions are planned in January.
The last time the number of civilians executed by the federal government topped double digits in a year was in 1896, when President Grover Cleveland was in office, according to the AP.
Bourgeois, a truck driver from LaPlace, Louisiana, was convicted of capital murder in 2004 for the killing of his 2-year-old daughter in 2002 at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, the Texas Tribune reported. According to court records, he was also found guilty of physically and emotionally torturing, sexually molesting and beating the child to death, the Corpus Christi Caller Times reported.
A jury took fewer than two hours to convict Bourgeois, WWL-TV reported. The same jury sentenced him to death.
Bourgeois met with his spiritual adviser Friday, one of his lawyers, Shawn Nolan, told the AP on Friday.
“He certainly doesn’t want to die -- and it’s harder for him to grasp being killed by the federal government. But he does get it that this is bad,” Nolan said. “He’s praying for redemption.”
In July 2002, Bourgeois, his daughter and two family members followed him on his trucking route to the Corpus Christi naval base to deliver a shipment, according to court documents.
>> Brandon Bernard executed at federal penitentiary
Documents state Bourgeois became angry with his daughter because she tipped over her potty training seat he would force her to sit on. He grabbed her by her shoulders and slammed the back of her head into the windshield around the dashboard four times, the Caller Times reported.
The child was taken to an area hospital where she later died after being on life support, the newspaper reported. The medical examiner found deep tissue bruising in every area of the girl’s body, according to court documents.
“It is impossible to adequately describe the incomprehensible cruelty demonstrated by Mr. Bourgeois during his six-week torture of this two-year-old child,” U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby said in a news release in 2004. “It is equally impossible to conceive of a case more deserving of the death penalty.”
Bourgeois’ execution is the second of five the federal government hopes to carry out before President Donald Trump leaves office on Jan. 20, The Washington Post reported.
Bourgeois’ case was classified as a federal crime because it occurred on military property, the Tribune reported.The federal executions, which began in July, were the first in the U.S. since 2003.
Cox Media Group
