The Justice Department is scheduled Thursday to execute the second federal inmate since Election Day, continuing the first lame-duck executions since the 19th century, even as the coronavirus pandemic has infected inmates and prison staff.
Since resuming federal executions in July after a 17-year break, the Trump administration has put eight federal inmates to death, and has shown no signs of slowing down in its waning days.
Brandon Bernard, implicated in two 1999 murders on a Texas military base, is scheduled to die Thursday, and four additional executions are planned before President Donald Trump leaves office in January.
Defense lawyers ...