The Terre Haute Five
By: Ethan Biando
Tags: Blm, Criminal Justice Reform, Criminal Justice, Death Penalty, Capital Punishment

On December 10th, 2020, letters calling for Brandon Bernard’s death sentence to be commuted came across Trump’s desk.

He ignored them. Hours later, the U.S. Supreme Court led by Trump’s appointed justices would deny Bernard’s appeal for a stay of execution. Bernard was executed at 9:27 P.M EST in the midst of an international discussion over the morality of Capital Punishment.

Bernard was convicted for his role in the murders of Todd and Stacie Bagley. The young couple was shot in the head and loaded into the trunk of a car, which Bernard lit on fire. His attorneys argued that both victims were dead before he lit the car on fire. Prosecutors asserted that the presence of soot in Stacie’s lungs proved she wasn’t dead.

While incarcerated, Bernard became a mentor to at-risk youth. Bernard’s case quickly gained traction worldwide, with celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Bernie Sanders calling for his sentence to be commuted.

Bernard was sedated before being administered Pentobarbital. His last words were multiple desperate apologies to media witnesses, family of the victims, and words of forgiveness to his executioners.

The Bagley family wrote a letter thanking Donald Trump for carrying out Bernard’s execution.

The next day, Alfred Bourgeois, a 52-year-old Black truck driver from Louisiana with a proven intellectual disability and a strong Atkins claim, was executed for the murder of his 2-year-old daughter in 2002. His intellectual disability would’ve constitutionally excluded him from being executed, however the ruling was reversed by a 7th Circuit court and, according to his attorneys, was decided upon an outdated standard of what qualifies as an intellectual disability. Both men’s pleas for mercy from Trump were ignored, and their SCOTUS appeals were denied following deciding votes from the “pro-life” justices. Bourgeois spoke about himself in third person to prison staff and fellow inmates, and according to his legal team, couldn’t understand why he was being put to death.

His final words came in the form of a barely-coherent plea with media witnesses — Bourgeois was repeating sentence fragments over and over about “planted evidence” and proclaiming himself “not guilty”, a defense that his legal team has never even used. Reporters have stated this could’ve been part of his intellectual disability.

Bourgeois was also administered Pentobarbital. His body convulsed on the gurney for almost half an hour before his pulse stopped and he was declared dead. If Bourgeois suffered that night, he suffered for a long time.

Helen Prejean, a roman-catholic sister, spiritual advisor, and anti-death penalty advocate has publicly criticized the Supreme Court after Bourgeois was executed.

A common outcry came from both men’s legal teams after they were executed.

“Trump is rushing executions.”

This claim seems to ring true when you look at the larger picture of federal executions. The Trump administration holds one of the most prolific federal execution periods of all-time, with Trump’s federal government carrying out the most executions in 124 years, including the only lame-duck period executions in 130 years. He’s carried out the most federal executions since Grover Cleveland in 1896, and for the first time ever, the annual number of federal executions has outnumbered state executions.

In the weeks before the inauguration of President-Elect Joe Biden — who is anti-death penalty — three more federal death row inmates are set to die. Two of them are Black men, and one of them is the first woman to be federally executed in 70 years. That would make five lame-duck federal executions and fourteen federal executions in total for Trump, tying Grover Cleveland’s record for the deadliest administration of all time.

The first set to die is Lisa Montgomery, the previously mentioned first woman to be executed in 7 decades. She was convicted following a particularly harrowing chain of events in 2004. That’s how rare federal executions are — we’re still on executions from the turn of the century. Trump’s administration is the only administration to continue federal executions in 17 years. Recent death-penalty convictions — people such as Dylann Roof and Nikolas Cruz — probably won’t ever be executed.

Montgomery was sentenced to death following the murder of a Missouri woman and the kidnapping of her unborn child. Montgomery was sterilized following a surgical procedure and had attempted to kidnap the baby to raise it as her own to please her abusive husband, who was also her step-brother.

Montgomery’s life reads like something out of a particularly gruesome horror novel. At a young age, she was a victim of incest, child prostitution, and rape countless times over. More than 1000 current and former prosecutors, anti-violence advocates, anti-trafficking organizations, and advocates for the abused and neglected are currently campaigning for her execution to be halted. According to the Cornell Law School, Montgomery has documented brain damage and untreated severe mental illness which made it almost impossible for her to function like a normal person. Today, she requires a complex combination of psychotropic drugs to maintain even somewhat of a grip on reality.

Montgomery’s mother drank while she was pregnant — causing her to be born with permanent brain damage. Her stepfather, Jack Kleiner, first assaulted her at 11 years old and repeatedly raped her. Her family dog was killed in front of her with a shovel — witnessing that alone would be enough to change the course of a young child’s life.

Montgomery was forced into prostitution by her mother at an early age, and became engaged to her stepbrother at 17.

The next execution, involving former Richmond, VA gang member Cory Johnson is scheduled for January 14th.

Johnson was a member of the Newtowne Gang, a short-lived crack cocaine operation in Virginia. The gang was responsible for at least 10 killings in a 45 day period in 1992. One victim was stabbed 85 times and another was shot 16 times. Johnson was found criminally responsible for 7 of the 10 killings.

Johnson, 52, is one of the longest-serving federal inmates on death row. Johnson’s death is scheduled less than a week before the end of Trump’s administration.

In a motion filed in a Virginia U.S. District Court, Johnson’s attorneys request that the court halt his execution so they can present evidence to establish Johnson’s intellectual disability — a similar defense to Alfred Bourgeois’ attorneys.

The attorneys cite statutes mentioned in the Federal Death Penalty Act, and say that three experts have concluded that Johnson is intellectually disabled.

Excerpts from the motion are included below:

Johnson’s name has been written as both Corey and Cory in legal documents. The name on his birth certificate is spelled Cory.

“Corey Johnson remained in the second grade for three years, and also repeated third and fourth grades. When asked his birthday at age 8, while in second grade, he thought it was in March, though he was actually born in November. When he was 13 years old, he could barely write his own name. And while he knew there were 12 months in the year, he could recite them only up to August. “

“Corey was not able to tell time or perform arithmetic beyond a third-grade level. At age 18, a high school teacher concluded that Corey could never pass the competency exams required to graduate. When he was in his early 20s, achievement testing measured his grade-equivalent levels no higher than second grade in reading and writing. When he was last tested at age 45, Mr. Johnson was still at an elementary school level.”

Johnson suffered from a childhood filled with extreme physical and emotional neglect, all of which are risk factors for intellectual disability, his attorneys contend. Johnson was abandoned at age 13 by his mother — who struggled with an addiction to drugs — at a residential facility for children with intellectual and emotional impairments.

His attorneys contend Johnson was misdiagnosed at previous hearings. They also argue his sentence was arbitrary due to a co-defendant being spared the death penalty. Vernon Thomas was convicted of 4 of the same murders Johnson was, and was spared the death penalty due to his intellectual disability.

The Trump administration’s last execution is scheduled for January 15th, Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Dustin John Higgs is set to be executed for his role in the kidnapping and murder of three women in 1996.

Higgs was in his apartment in 1996 with three women, Tanji Jackson, Tamika Black, and Mishann Chinn, as well as two male friends, Victor Gloria and Willie Mark Haynes. The group had stopped at a liquor store and returned to Higgs apartment to listen to music and enjoy the drinks.

In the early morning hours, an argument would arise between Higgs and Tanji Jackson in the kitchen. Jackson picked a knife up off the counter and began threatening Higgs with it. Willie Mark Haynes exited the bedroom and broke the altercation up.

Jackson, still angry, stopped at the door and said “I’m gonna get you all fucked up or robbed.” and walked outside. Higgs turned to his friends, remarking “She do know a lot of n — s.”

As the group watched the woman leave, they observed her stop and write down the license plate number of Higgs’ van. Higgs, in anger now, stated “She’s writing down my shit. Fuck that.” Higgs grabbed his coat off the table and put a silver .38 revolver in his pocket. Higgs got into his van with the men, and Haynes convinced the women to get into the van.

Higgs drove the group towards Washington D.C. near the Pauxtent National Wildlife Refuge, a federal government property. Higgs pulled over to a secluded location, and one of the girls asked if he intended to make them walk from there.

“Something like that.” he responded.

Haynes exited the van with the .38 revolver, shooting and killing all three women. Both Higgs and Gloria would stay in the car, Gloria cowering in the back seat and Higgs white-knuckling the steering wheel.

Later, the prosecution would assert Higgs “bullied” Haynes into killing the women. Haynes has testified under oath regarding his own motive for the murders, stating Higgs was merely a witness.

All three of the remaining cases in Trump’s federal execution spree show a strong case for commutation. Countless advocacy groups across the nation are speaking out, begging for the remaining executions to be halted.

There’s just one question looming on the horizon,

‘Will Trump allow it?’

As of December 19th, 2020, both Cory Johnson and Dustin John Higgs have tested positive for COVID-19 following an outbreak at USP Terre Haute. As many as 10 inmates are estimated to have been infected.