Texas killer dies in 7th U.S. execution

FILE - In this Aug. 28, 2020, file photo shows the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind. A wave of federal executions by the Trump administration after a 17-year hiatus are set to resume. If it goes ahead as scheduled Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020, William Emmett LeCroy would be the sixth federal death-row inmate executed this year at the U.S. prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Another is scheduled Thursday. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 28, 2020, file photo shows the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind. A wave of federal executions by the Trump administration after a 17-year hiatus are set to resume. If it goes ahead as scheduled Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020, William Emmett LeCroy would be the sixth federal death-row inmate executed this year at the U.S. prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Another is scheduled Thursday. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- A man who killed a religious couple visiting Texas from Iowa was executed Thursday, the first Black inmate put to death as part of the Trump administration's resumption of federal executions.

Christopher Vialva, 40, was pronounced dead shortly before 6 p.m. CDT after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind.

In a last statement, Vialva asked God to comfort the families of the couple he had killed, saying, "Father ... heal their hearts with grace and love." His final words were: "I'm ready, Father."

Vialva was 19 years old in 1999 when he shot Todd and Stacie Bagley and burned them in the trunk of their car. Vialva's lawyer, Susan Otto, has said race played a role in landing her client on death row for killing the white couple.

Vialva was the seventh federal execution since July and the second this week. Five of the first six were white. The sixth was Navajo.

"I believe when someone deliberately takes the life of another, they suffer the consequences for their actions," Todd Bagley's mother, Georgia, wrote in a statement released after the execution.

"Christopher's mother had the opportunity to visit him for the past 21 years," she wrote. "We have had to wait for 21 years for justice and closure. We cannot be with our children for visits or to see them on holidays. We were denied that privilege," Bagley's mother wrote.

In the video statement his lawyers released Thursday, Vialva expressed regret for what he'd done and said he was a changed man.

"I committed a grave wrong when I was a lost kid and took two precious lives from this world," he said. "Every day, I wish I could right this wrong."

Vialva's mother, Lisa Brown, told the AP in a text Thursday night that she attended the execution and "He was looking at me when he died."

This undated image taken from video provided by attorney Susan Otto shows Christopher Vialva in the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind. Otto, the lawyer for Vialva, the first Black inmate set to die in a series of federal executions this year says race played a central role in landing him on death row for slaying a white couple from Iowa. Otto says just one juror was Black and 11 white at Vialva's 2000 federal trial in western Texas. Vialva's execution is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020. (Photo courtesy of Susan Otto via AP)
This undated image taken from video provided by attorney Susan Otto shows Christopher Vialva in the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind. Otto, the lawyer for Vialva, the first Black inmate set to die in a series of federal executions this year says race played a central role in landing him on death row for slaying a white couple from Iowa. Otto says just one juror was Black and 11 white at Vialva's 2000 federal trial in western Texas. Vialva's execution is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020. (Photo courtesy of Susan Otto via AP)

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