Lawyers for man who tortured and killed 2-year-old daughter say he is intellectually disabled, file lawsuit to block his execution
Attorneys of a federal death row inmate, who was convicted of molesting and killing his two-year-old daughter, have filed a motion arguing that he is intellectually disabled and hence should be spared of execution.
Alfred Bourgeois, 55 is one of the five federal inmates whose execution was ordered by Attorney General, Bill Barr on July 2019 after a 16-year lapse in federal executions.
While filing for a stay of execution, lawyers for Bourgeois argued that his IQ had been tested on two occasions at 70 and 75, and had been 'corrected under clinically—accepted standards to 67 and 68.'
In a statement to DailyMail, Bourgeois' attorney, Victor Abreu said, "Alfred Bourgeois is intellectually disabled and constitutionally ineligible for the death penalty".
He also added, "The jury that sentenced Mr. Bourgeois to death never learned that he was intellectually disabled."
Abreu went on to explain that no court ever used proper scientific standards to review his client's disability.
In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled executing people with intellectual disabilities was unconstitutional as it was an unusual and cruel punishment.
However, the Justice Department, in a statement, said all the inmates sentenced to death by Barr had "exhausted their appellate and post-conviction remedies, and currently no legal impediments prevent their executions."
The other inmates scheduled for execution are, Daniel Lewis Lee, 46; Lezmond Charles Mitchell, 37; Wesley Ira Purkey, 67, and Dustin Lee Honken, 51.
In his statement regarding the executions, Barr said, "Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people's representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President."
"The Justice Department upholds the rule of law—and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system."
According to Bourgeois' prosecutors, he sexually molested his two-year-old daughter, and then beat her to death.
In May 2002, a Texas court ordered him to pay Katrina Harrison $160 per month in child support for the young daughter.
It also granted his request for visitation rights with the girls for seven weeks. She briefly stayed with Bourgeois, his wife and their two children at their home in Louisiana.
According to the court documents, he tortured and abused his daughter in several ways.
He punched her in the face with force enough to give her black eyes. She was also whipped with an electric cord and beaten up with a belt.
The court also heard that Bourgeois hit her on the head with a plastic baseball bat so many times, that her head "was swollen like a football".