NEWS BRIEF — Federal Government, Texas Set New Execution Dates

As July 2020 came to a close, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment issued two more notices of exe­cu­tion and a coun­ty judge in Texas report­ed­ly issued a new death war­rant for a death-row pris­on­er whose pre­vi­ous­ly sched­uled exe­cu­tion had been stayed.

In a July 31 news release, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had set exe­cu­tion dates of September 22, 2020 for William LeCroy and September 24, 2020 for Christopher Vialva. LeCroy was sen­tenced to death in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in March 2004. The government’s assert­ed jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for try­ing LeCroy in fed­er­al court is that he had com­mit­ted a car­jack­ing result­ing in death. Vialva was sen­tenced to death in Texas fed­er­al court in June 2000. The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment had juris­dic­tion over his case because the two mur­ders he was con­vict­ed of com­mit­ting occurred on fed­er­al land on a por­tion of the Fort Hood military reservation.

Keri Blakinger of The Marshall Project reports that a judge in Rusk County, Texas has reis­sued a death war­rant for Blaine Milam, sched­ul­ing his exe­cu­tion for January 21, 2021. Milam pre­vi­ous­ly received a stay of exe­cu­tion in January 2019 based on alle­ga­tions that his con­vic­tion was based on false sci­en­tif­ic tes­ti­mo­ny con­cern­ing bitemarks and because the Texas courts had adju­di­cat­ed his intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty claim using uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly harsh cri­te­ria. On remand, the tri­al court again denied both of those claims, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld that rul­ing on July 1, 2020.