(WTWO/WAWV) — Two federal executions are scheduled to take place at the Terre Haute Federal Penitentiary in September, both men are convicted murderers.
William Emmett LeCroy is convicted of the 2001 Georgia raping and killing of a 30-year-old nurse Joann Lee Tiesler. LeCroy had already served 10 years in federal and state prison for child molestation, statutory rape, aggravated battery and burglary among other crimes. Upon his release, he had plans to flee the country.
As a part of that plan, LeCroy broke into Tielser’s Gilmer County, GA home, attacked her, ties her hands behind her back, strangled her with an electrical cord and raped her. He then slashed her throat and stabbed her in the back five times. He stole her car and was arrested when he arrived at the Canadian border.
LeCroy was sentenced to death in March 2004 in a U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. His sentence and conviction were affirmed on appeal and his collateral relief was rejected by every court that considered them.
His execution is set for September 22, 2020.
Christopher Andre Vialva was convicted of the 1999 murders of youth ministers Todd and Stacie Bagley in Killeen, Texas.
Todd Bagley agreed to give Vialva and two accomplices a ride while stopping to use a payphone. Once in the car, Vialva ordered the Bagleys into the truck by gunpoint. He drove the car for several hours, stopping at ATMs to take money from the Bagleys’ bank account. He also tried to pawn Stacie’s wedding ring.
The couple begged from the trunk to be released while talking with their abductors about God.
Vialva stopped the car at the military reservation in Fort Hood, Texas, His accomplice doused the car with lighter fluid, while the couple sang and prayed. Vialva shot Todd in the back of the head, killing him, and Stacie in the face knocking her unconscious, she died of smoke inhalation once the car was set aflame by an accomplice.
Vialva was sentenced to death in June 2000 in a U.S. District Court of the Western District Court of Texas. Vialva was found guilty of two counts of murder within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, among other offenses. His sentence and conviction were affirmed on appeal and his collateral relief was rejected by every court that considered them.
His execution date is scheduled for September 24, 2020.
