TRUMP PREPARES TO EXECUTE CHRISTOPHER VIALVA FOR A CRIME HE COMMITTED AS A TEENAGER

[OCS: Trump was not even a candidate when the inmate was tried and sentenced to death. It is both dishonest and disgusting that any publication would attempt to racialize the death penalty and place it on Trump’s doorstep – except for the fact that the Democrats are trying to pander to their Black constituency in the run-up to the 2020 election.]

Vialva is the first Black man to face execution during Trump’s killing spree. He is set to die on September 24.

[OCS: While the inmate may self-identify as Back, the truth is that he is of a mixed-race with a white mother.]

[Yada. Yada. Yada. It is a given that the inmate does not have the opportunity to be the same violent and vicious person while he is incarcerated. Yes, he may have changed over the years, but this may be due to the circumstances of his incarceration.]

Vialva was sentenced by an almost all-white jury too. But Brown, who is white, bristles at the emphasis on her son being the first Black man facing execution under Trump. She stresses what his lawyer, advocates, and friends on death row have also said: that Vialva is simply not the same person he was at 19. He is a loving son and brother, a voracious reader, and a positive influence on his neighbors in Terre Haute. After converting to Messianic Judaism, his mother’s faith, he has spent the last decade worshipping alongside other men.

[OCS: He may have had a traumatic childhood, he may have had other mitigating factors, including the old chestnut of ineffective counsel, but there is no dispute that he killed two loving individuals in a family in cold-blood.]

But as Vialva’s lawyers have emphasized aspects of his background that could have compelled jurors to spare his life — including childhood trauma, evidence of organic brain damage, and suicidal ideation beginning when he was 11 years old — Brown has also had to confront her own family’s scarring bigotry.

[OCS: Boo effin’ Hoo! I see nothing that mitigates the cold-blooded killing of a loving couple in a violent and vicious manner. The fact that he burned the vehicle to destroy the evidence and bodies speaks to a rational state of mind and a conscious knowledge of right and wrong.] 

[OCS: Not only should the inmate be held fully responsible for his violent and vicious actions, but his death should also serve as a deterrent for other violent and vicious criminals – especially younger individuals who may believe that their age may insulate them from the ultimate punishment.]

The murders that sent Vialva to die were undeniably cruel. On the evening of June 21, 1999, a car was reported on fire in the Belton Lake Recreation Area on the grounds of Fort Hood, a large military base in Killeen, Texas. Firefighters and law enforcement found two burned bodies in the trunk of the vehicle. They belonged to a 28-year-old woman named Stacie Bagley and her 26-year-old husband, Todd.

A group of Black youths was arrested shortly afterward. Investigators quickly elicited incriminating statements. The younger teens, who were between the ages of 15 and 17, said Vialva had convinced them to target a random stranger by asking them for a ride, then robbing them of their money and belongings. After one of the boys approached Todd Bagley while he used a payphone outside a convenience store, three others got in their car with Stacie. They led the couple to a remote location, then Vialva told them that “plans have changed.” They forced the Bagleys at gunpoint to get into the trunk. After driving to collect money from different ATMs, Vialva reportedly said that the couple had seen too much. He shot them both in the head. <Source>