By Daniella Silva - NBC News
A black man was executed by the federal government on Thursday for a crime he committed at age 19.
His lawyer reported that prosecutors used inflammatory racial stereotypes during the trial, held 20 years ago, to put their client on death row.
Christopher Vialva, 40, was executed Thursday night at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana
.
The Vigo County, Indiana medical examiner pronounced him dead at 6:46 p.m., according to a statement from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
He was the first black prisoner to be executed since the Trump administration resumed federal executions this year.
Vialva was sentenced to death for the 1999 murder of Todd and Stacie Bagley in Texas
, a white couple who served as religious pastors.
During the federal trial in 2000, the jury consisted of 11 whites and one black person, according to Vialva's attorney, Susan Otto.
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Prosecutors portrayed Vialva "as the leader of a violent and well-organized street gang," Otto said.
"In 2000, calling these kids predators, when they just roamed our communities wreaking havoc,
was a very powerful and very compelling narrative
,
" he
recalled.
Otto stated that there was no evidence that Vialva was a leader or an actual member of the so-called 212 PIRU Bloods gang.
He and his friends met the couple after Vialva was kicked out of her mother's house and, having nowhere to go, the group decided to rob someone, the lawyer explained.
"This is the product of a person who is a child, with a very disorganized thinking, in full panic, surrounded by a lot of children whose ideas are as bad as his," he argued.
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Otto lamented that framing Vialva and Brandon Bernard, also a black co-defendant, within a violent gang was a very compelling narrative for the jury.
Bernard was also sentenced to death and his execution date has not been set, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
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"I think concluding that Christopher was a mad dog that needed to be euthanized had a very strong impact on the jury's decision. As time has shown, nothing could be further from the truth," he added.
Otto emphasized Vialva's growth as a person during her time in prison, explaining that she studied a messianic faith and had "overwhelming regret" for her actions.
Otto also noted that Vialva's development was about three years younger at the time of the murders and that when she met him in 2003, she still had trouble reading.
The lawyer had asked President Trump to grant her clemency and commute her sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"Christopher is simply asking you to spare his life," he said.
More than 46% of the 56 inmates on federal death row are black people
, who make up about 13% of the United States population.
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In a recent opinion piece for Bloomberg Law, Jason Chein, a professor of psychology at Temple University, stated that Vialva's pending execution ignores what "the last 20 years of research has taught us about adolescent brain development and teenagers".
"Science suggests that no person of this age should be tried for capital punishment," he wrote.
Chein told NBC News on Thursday that the accusation Vialva had been tried for
it was "terrible" but he "seemed to be admitting guilt and was convicted."
"It is the right time for us to take a closer look at whether capital punishment may be appropriate for someone who has not reached the age of
full
maturity
in their brain, and I would say it cannot," he said.
Chein noted that while a 19-year-old knows the rational difference between right and wrong, study after study has shown that when emotional arousal or social conditions are added that change the way the brain makes decisions, the brain looks like the brain of "a younger individual and not that of a fully mature adult."
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"The way their brain processes information in those situations makes it clear to us that they don't yet have the adult capacity to make those decisions," he explained.
According to the Justice Department, Todd and Stacie Bagley were murdered in 1999 in Fort Hood, Texas, after agreeing to take Vialva and two of her friends in their car.
Vialva pulled out a pistol and forced the couple into the trunk
.
The group of teens drove for a few hours, stopping to try to withdraw money from the Bagley's bank account and pawn Stacie Bagley's ring, according to the Justice Department.
Vialva eventually parked at the Fort Hood military reservation and shot the couple while another man set the car on fire, according to the Justice Department.
The Trump administration restarted federal executions in July after a 17-year hiatus, starting with six in Terre Haute federal prison.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.