- The Washington Times - Friday, July 31, 2020

The Justice Department on Friday scheduled the execution of two death row inmates, who were each convicted murder.

A third death row inmate earlier this week had his execution scheduled for August.

The government this month killed three federal inmates on death row.

If the remaining three executions go forward, the six deaths would be the most federal executions in one year since 1938. The government killed five people in 1953.

William Emmett LeCroy, who violently raped and strangled a 30-year-old nurse in Blue Ridge Georgia in 2001, will be put to death at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana on September 22.

LeCroy killed the woman, Joann Lee Tiesler, roughly two months after he had been released from a 10-year prison sentence for raping his 13-year-old step-sister.

Christopher Andre Vialva, 39, who was sentenced to death for murdering youth ministers Todd and Stacie Bagley in 1999, will be executed on September 24.

Vialva’s victims agreed to give him and an accomplice a ride. While inside the car, he forced his victims into the trunk. He later shot both, killing Mr. Bagley instantly. Ms. Bagley was shot in the head but died from smoke inhalation after she was left to die in the burning car.

Both inmates have had their appeals rejected by multiple federal courts, the Justice Department said.

Earlier this month, the government executed Wesley Ira Purkey, Dustin Lee Honken and Daniel Lewis Lee. The three men, who were convicted of killing children, were the first federal inmates to be executed since 2003.

This week the Justice Department scheduled the execution of Lezmond Mitchell, the only Native American on federal death row, for August 26.

If the execution proceeds, it will be the first time in modern American history the government executed a Native American tribal member.

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.

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