US executes first Black federal inmate in more than 17 years

The US government executed convicted murderer Christopher Vialva on Thursday, the first Black man to suffer the federal death penalty since this summer after a 17-year hiatus, Report says, citing TASS.

The death row inmate was just 19 when he and fellow gang members in Killeen, Texas, killed Todd and Stacie Bagley, a white couple from Iowa, at Fort Hood in 1999.

In the last statement, Vialva, aged 40, asked God to comfort the families of the couple he had killed, saying, "Father...heal their hearts with grace and love."

His final words were: "I'm ready, Father."

He was pronounced dead at 6.46 pm on Thursday after the US Department of Justice officials injected him with pentobarbital, a barbiturate, at the execution chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana.