The following is a statement from Victor J. Abreu, attorney for Alfred Bourgeois:
Tonight, the United States killed a man with intellectual disability in spite of clear directives from the U.S. Supreme Court and federal laws that prohibited it. Alfred Bourgeois suffered from this disability his entire life, but he was never given the opportunity to present the clear evidence of his intellectual disability to a fair court. Instead, a court rejected his claim based on damaging and incorrect stereotypes about what intellectual disability looks like instead of the science-based standards that define the diagnosis.
It is shameful that the government executed Mr. Bourgeois without fair consideration of his intellectual disability. The fact that he was executed without this review taking place—even though he is categorically ineligible for the death penalty—shows just why the government’s haste to execute so many people, in the midst of a pandemic and during a lame duck presidency, is simply unconscionable.
- Victor J. Abreu, Attorney for Alfred Bourgeois
- December 11, 2020