US Department of Justice sets two execution dates for late September

As I have mentioned before, in this recent post I wondered aloud "How many federal death row prisoners does Attorney General William Barr want to see executed in 2020?".  My central point in that post was that, after the completion of three federal executions earlier this month thanks to SCOTUS lifting lower court stays, there is every reason to believe that AG Barr will be able to complete however many executions he decides to set in the near future.

Thereafter, as reported in this post, DOJ set the execution of Lezmond Mitchell for August 26, 2020.  And late Friday, as detailed in this DOJ press release, AG Barr has decided that he wants to move forward with at least two more executions in 2020.  This release includes these particulars:

Attorney General William P. Barr ... directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to schedule the executions of two federal death-row inmates who were each convicted of murder.

• William Emmett LeCroy raped and murdered Joann Lee Tiesler, a 30-year-old nurse, in 2001.  LeCroy had previously served 10 years in federal and state prison for, among other crimes, aggravated assault, burglary, child molestation, and statutory rape.  After his release to supervised probation, LeCroy began planning to flee the country.  In furtherance of that plan, LeCroy broke into Tiesler’s home in Gilmer County, Georgia.  Once she returned home, LeCroy attacked her, bound her hands behind her back, strangled her with an electrical cord, and raped her.  Then he slashed her throat with a knife and stabbed her in the back five times.  LeCroy then stole Tiesler’s vehicle and drove to the Canadian border, where he was arrested....  LeCroy’s execution is scheduled for Sept. 22, 2020.
• Christopher Andre Vialva murdered youth ministers Todd and Stacie Bagley in 1999.  While stopping to use a payphone in Killeen, Texas, Todd Bagley agreed to give a ride to Vialva and two of his accomplices.  In the victims’ car, Vialva pulled out a gun, forced the Bagleys into the trunk, and drove the vehicle for several hours, stopping at ATMs to withdraw money from the couple’s bank account and trying to pawn Stacie Bagley’s wedding ring.  While locked in the trunk, the couple spoke with their abductors about God and pleaded for their lives.  Vialva eventually parked at a remote site on the Fort Hood, Texas, military reservation, where an accomplice doused the car with lighter fluid as the couple sang and prayed.  Vialva then shot Todd Bagley in the head, killing him instantly, and shot Stacie Bagley in the face, knocking her unconscious and leaving her to die of smoke inhalation after an accomplice set the car on fire.... Vialva’s execution is scheduled for Sept. 24, 2020.

A few of many recent prior related posts:

• Justice Department announces the scheduling of four new federal execution dates
• SCOTUS, by 5-4 vote, vacates new injunction that had been blocking scheduled federal executions ... UPDATE: execution of Daniel Lewis Lee now completed
• Federal execution déjà vu: after SCOTUS votes 5-4 to vacate injunction, feds complete another morning lethal injection 
• Feds, revving up machinery of death, complete third execution of week
• How many federal death row prisoners does Attorney General William Barr want to see executed in 2020? 
• US Department of Justice sets another execution date for last week of August