Executions Under the Federal Death Penalty

Sixteen peo­ple have been exe­cut­ed since the rein­state­ment of the fed­er­al death penal­ty in 1988. View a list of ear­li­er exe­cu­tions here.

* 168 vic­tims were killed in the Oklahoma City bomb­ing. McVeigh was fed­er­al­ly pros­e­cut­ed and sen­tenced to death for the mur­ders of the eight fed­er­al agents who were killed in the bombing.

Timothy McVeigh, White male, exe­cut­ed on June 11, 2001. McVeigh was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in June 1997, for the bomb­ing of an Oklahoma City fed­er­al build­ing in 1995, in which 168 peo­ple were killed. McVeigh waived his col­lat­er­al appeals, and the Government set McVeigh’s exe­cu­tion on May 16, 2001. McVeigh was grant­ed a 30-day stay of exe­cu­tion by Attorney General John Ashcroft after it was dis­cov­ered that the FBI had failed to dis­close more than 3,000 pages of doc­u­ment to McVeigh’s defense team. McVeigh’s co-defen­dant, Terry Nichols, was cap­i­tal­ly pros­e­cut­ed by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment in a sep­a­rate tri­al. In December 1997, he was con­vict­ed by the jury and sen­tenced to life with­out parole. Nichols was lat­er cap­i­tal­ly tried in Oklahoma state court for the mur­ders of the 161 non-fed­er­al employ­ees in Oklahoma City. In May 2004, he was con­vict­ed, and the jury dead­locked and he was sen­tenced to life in prison with­out parole. (Terry Nichols Fast Facts, CNN Library; Oklahoma City Bombing Fast Facts, CNN Library.)

Juan Raul Garza, Latino male, exe­cut­ed on June 19, 2001. Garza, a mar­i­jua­na dis­trib­u­tor, was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in August 1993, in Texas for the mur­ders of three oth­er drug traf­fick­ers. Garza was denied review by the U.S. Supreme Court in late 1999 and was fac­ing an exe­cu­tion date of August 5, 2000. The date was post­poned until the Justice Department fin­ished draft­ing guide­lines for fed­er­al death row inmates seek­ing pres­i­den­tial clemen­cy, which were issued in ear­ly August. Garza was offered the oppor­tu­ni­ty to apply for clemen­cy under the new guide­lines and a new exe­cu­tion date of Dec. 12, 2000 was set. In December 2000, President Clinton again delayed Garza’s exe­cu­tion for at least six months to allow fur­ther study of the fair­ness of the fed­er­al death penal­ty. (In Death, Garza Seeks Forgiveness, ABC News, June 19, 2001.)

Louis Jones, Black male, exe­cut­ed on March 18, 2003. Jones was sen­tenced to death in November 1995 in Texas for the kidnap/​murder of a young white female sol­dier. The United States Supreme Court grant­ed review of the case and heard argu­ments on February 22, 1999. The Supreme Court affirmed the con­vic­tion on June 21, 1999. Jones, a dec­o­rat­ed Gulf War vet­er­an who had no pri­or crim­i­nal record, claimed that his expo­sure to nerve gas in Iraq and post-trau­mat­ic stress from his com­bat tours con­tributed to his mur­der of Pvt. Tracie Joy McBride in Texas. President George W. Bush refused Jones’ clemen­cy request. (Associated Press, U.S. Executes Gulf War Veteran Who Raped and Killed a Soldier, NY Times, March 19, 2003.)

Daniel Lewis Lee, White male, exe­cut­ed on July 14, 2020. Daniel Lewis Lee and co-defen­dant Chevie Kehoe were con­vict­ed in 1999 of killing Nancy Mueller, her hus­band William Mueller, and her 8‑year-old daugh­ter Sarah Powell. Lee sought exec­u­tive clemen­cy with the sup­port of Mueller’s fam­i­ly, the pros­e­cu­tor, and the judge who tried him in an Arkansas fed­er­al court. They all believed that exe­cut­ing Lee would be a mis­car­riage of jus­tice giv­en the life sen­tence imposed on his much more cul­pa­ble co-defen­dant. Judge G. Thomas Eisele described Kehoe as the ​“ring­leader,” and tri­al tes­ti­mo­ny showed that Kehoe killed Sarah Powell after Lee refused, say­ing he would not kill a child. (Mark Berman, Trump admin­is­tra­tion car­ries out first fed­er­al exe­cu­tion since 2003 after late-night Supreme Court inter­ven­tion, The Washington Post, July 14, 2020.)

Wesley Ira Purkey, White male, exe­cut­ed on July 16, 2020. Wesley Purkey was sen­tenced to death in Missouri fed­er­al court in 2003 for the kid­nap­ping, rape, and mur­der of a Kansas City, Missouri, teenag­er. Lawyers for Purkey argued he was incom­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed because he had Alzheimer’s dis­ease, schiz­o­phre­nia, and trau­mat­ic brain injuries that ​“render[ed] him unable to ratio­nal­ly under­stand the rea­son the United States seeks to exe­cute him.” Court fil­ings cat­a­logue a life­long his­to­ry of trau­ma and men­tal ill­ness that have con­tributed to his cur­rent con­di­tion. He expe­ri­enced sex­u­al, phys­i­cal, and emo­tion­al abuse begin­ning at age 5, and began using alco­hol and drugs as a child. He has been diag­nosed with numer­ous men­tal ill­ness­es, includ­ing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), bipo­lar dis­or­der, schiz­o­phre­nia, and depres­sion, and has mul­ti­ple doc­u­ment­ed sui­cide attempts. (Vic Ryckaert, Elizabeth DePompei, and Justin L. Mack, Wesley Ira Purkey exe­cut­ed in Terre Haute, 2^nd man put to death this week, Indianapolis Star, July 16, 2020.)

Dustin Lee Honken, white male, exe­cut­ed on July 17, 2020. Dustin Lee Honken was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of two girls in Iowa in 1993. Although the State of Iowa does not have the death penal­ty, Honken was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in fed­er­al court. Honken chal­lenged con­sti­tu­tion­al errors in his tri­al and sen­tenc­ing. During his tri­al, a num­ber of jail­house infor­mants pro­vid­ed tes­ti­mo­ny, which Honken lat­er chal­lenged based on evi­dence that the infor­mants had coor­di­nat­ed their tes­ti­mo­ny and that the gov­ern­ment with­held evi­dence that could have been used to impeach their cred­i­bil­i­ty. He also argued that his attor­neys failed to ade­quate­ly inves­ti­gate his dys­func­tion­al fam­i­ly back­ground and present evi­dence of how his upbring­ing led to men­tal health prob­lems. (Tyler J. Davis, Live updates: Higher courts rebuff late legal efforts, Iowan Dustin Honken put to death, Des Moines Register, July 17, 2020.)

Lezmond Mitchell, Native American male, exe­cut­ed on August 26, 2020. Mitchell and his co-defen­dants (includ­ing a juve­nile) alleged­ly got a ride from a woman and her 9 year old grand­daugh­ter in Arizona. They killed both vic­tims and stole the car sup­pos­ed­ly for use in an armed rob­bery. Each vic­tim was stabbed at a sep­a­rate loca­tion. The Attorney General autho­rized a cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion against Mitchell under a car­jack­ing the­o­ry — although the mur­ders occurred on Navajo trib­al land and the tribe had not ​“opt­ed in” to the fed­er­al death penal­ty. Attorney General Ashcroft direct­ed that the case be tried cap­i­tal­ly with­out con­sult­ing the trib­al gov­ern­ment. Mitchell was found guilty on May 20, and sen­tenced to death on September 15, 2003.

Keith Nelson, White male, exe­cut­ed on August 28, 2020. Nelson was con­vict­ed of kid­nap­ping a girl from her Kansas home and mur­der­ing her in Missouri. On November 28, 2001 a jury rec­om­mend­ed the death penal­ty for Nelson, and on March 11, 2002, a fed­er­al judge imposed the death penal­ty.

William LeCroy, Jr., White male, exe­cut­ed on September 22, 2020. A jury sen­tenced LeCroy to death in the 2001 car­jack­ing and mur­der of a North Georgia woman and the court accept­ed the jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion. The car­jack­ing was the sole basis for fed­er­al juris­dic­tion in the case. LeCroy’s lawyers argued that the mur­der took place inside the vic­tim’s house before the vehi­cle was stolen, and thus did not con­sti­tute a car­jack­ing result­ing in death, as required under the fed­er­al statute. However, the tri­al court read the death-penal­ty statute expan­sive­ly and the appeals court affirmed that inter­pre­ta­tion of the statute.

Christopher Vialva, Black male (bira­cial), exe­cut­ed on September 24, 2020. Vialva and his co-defen­dant Brandon Bernard were con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in June 2000 for the car­jack­ing and mur­der of a white cou­ple on a remote par­cel of fed­er­al land near Fort Hood in cen­tral Texas. Vialva was 19 years old at the time of the mur­ders, and Bernard was 18. Four younger teenagers, aged 15 and 16, also pled guilty to fed­er­al charges relat­ing to the crime. Vialva was the first African American exe­cut­ed in the mod­ern era of the fed­er­al death penal­ty and the first per­son in 72 years to be exe­cut­ed by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment for a crime com­mit­ted while he was a teenag­er.

Orlando Hall, Black male, exe­cut­ed on November 19, 2020. Hall was charged along­side Bruce Webster in Fort Worth, Texas with the abduc­tion, sex­u­al assault, and beat­ing mur­der of a 16-year-old black female. They were tried sep­a­rate­ly. Hall was sen­tenced to death in November 1995. Webster was sen­tenced to death in June 1996.

Brandon Bernard, Black male, exe­cut­ed on December 10, 2020. A fed­er­al jury in Waco, TX, con­vict­ed Bernard and his co-defen­dant Christopher Vialva in June 2000, of car­jack­ing and the mur­der of an Iowa cou­ple on a remote par­cel of fed­er­al land near Fort Hood in cen­tral Texas. Both were sen­tenced to death. Bernard was 18 years old at the time of the mur­ders, and is the youngest offend­er on fed­er­al death row in more than 70 years. Vialva, who was 19-years-old at the time of his offense, was exe­cut­ed on September 24, 2020. Four younger teenagers also pled guilty to fed­er­al charges relat­ing to the crime.

Alfred Bourgeois, Black male, exe­cut­ed on December 11, 2020. In March 2004, a jury rec­om­mend­ed a death sen­tence for Alfred Bourgeois for the 2002 mur­der of his daugh­ter at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station in Texas, based in part on the tes­ti­mo­ny of a pris­on­er housed with Bourgeois.

Lisa Montgomery, White female, exe­cut­ed on January 13, 2021. On Oct. 26, 2007, a jury in Kansas City, Missouri rec­om­mend­ed a death sen­tence for Montgomery fol­low­ing her con­vic­tion for kid­nap­ping and killing Bobbie Jo Stinnett, also white, and steal­ing her unborn baby. Montgomery took the baby with her to Kansas and claimed the baby was her child. (Kansas City Star, Oct. 26, 2007). Montgomery was for­mal­ly sen­tenced to death on April 4, 2008 in U.S. District Court. (Topeka Capital-Journal, Apr. 3, 2008). She became the third woman on the fed­er­al death row.

Corey Johnson, Black male, exe­cut­ed on January 14, 2021. Johnson was a mem­ber of an inner-city gang in Richmond, VA. He was sen­tenced to death in February 1993 for his par­tic­i­pa­tion in a series of drug-relat­ed mur­ders. Execution dates were set for Johnson and his two co-defen­dants in May 2006, but the exe­cu­tions were stayed because of a chal­lenge to the lethal injec­tion process.

Dustin John Higgs, Black male, exe­cut­ed on January 16, 2021. Higgs was con­vict­ed in October 2000 of order­ing the 1996 mur­der of three Maryland women after argu­ing with one of them in his apart­ment. The trig­ger­man, Willis Mark Haynes, was con­vict­ed in May 2000 and sen­tenced to life plus 45 years in prison. Higgs’s case was the third death penal­ty pros­e­cu­tion in Maryland since the fed­er­al death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1988, but marked the first time a jury imposed the death penal­ty. (Washington Post, 10/​27/​00). The pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness who tes­ti­fied that Higgs ordered him to com­mit the killings lat­er recant­ed his tes­ti­mo­ny and Higgs insist­ed up until the moment of the exe­cu­tion that he was inno­cent of the murders.