⁍ The U.S. Supreme Court denied Vialva’s application for a stay on Thursday.
⁍ Vialva’s execution comes as the nation grapples with racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
⁍ Black people make up only 13% of the U.S. population.
– For the first time in 17 years, the federal government plans to execute a black man, Reuters reports. Christopher Vialva, who was 19 when he and other members of a gang in Killeen, Texas, carjacked and murdered a married white couple, will be the first to be executed by the feds since the resumption of the death penalty this summer. Of the 56 people on federal death row, 26, or 46%, are Black, and 22, or 39%, are white, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Black people make only 13% of the US population. Vialva’s execution comes as the nation grapples with racial disparities in the criminal justice system, with daily protests occurring in US cities against police brutality against Black people. Vialva’s execution comes as the nation grapples with racial disparities in the criminal justice system, with daily protests occurring in US cities against police brutality against Black people. Of the 56 people on federal death row, 26, or 46%, are Black, and 22, or 39%, are white, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Black people make only 13% of the US population. DPIC published a report this month concluding that racial bias persists in the US system of capital punishment. The report said that the killers of white people were more likely to face the death penalty than the killers of Black people, and study juries in North Carolina found that qualified Black jurors were struck at more than twice the rate of qualified white jurors.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-executions/us-to-execute-first-black-man-since-resumption-of-federal-death-penalty-idUSKCN26F39D