Trump admin carries out execution: Here are 5 ways US executes prisoners

Brandon Bernard, 40, was given the death penalty for his involvement in the murder of a religious couple from Iowa in June 1999.

The Trump administration on Thursday carried out a rare execution during a presidential transition period in 130 years, putting to death a Texas street-gang member after the US Supreme Court rejected last-minute clemency pleas. Brandon Bernard, 40, was given the death penalty for his involvement in the murder of a religious couple from Iowa in June 1999.

Several high-profile individuals had appealed to Trump to commute the death sentence to life in prison. (AP)

According to the US Department of Justice, Bernard and his accomplices robbed the two ministers, Todd and Stacie Bagley, and forced them into the trunk of their car in Texas. The couple were shot by 19-year-old accomplice Christopher Vialva before Bernard set the car alight.

Several high-profile individuals, including Kim Kardashian West, had appealed to Trump to commute the death sentence to life in prison. Five of the nine surviving jurors on the case had also urged Trump to grant clemency to Bernard, who was in his teen when the crime was committed. Bernard received a lethal injection of phenobarbital at a US prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was pronounced dead at 9.27pm local time on Thursday at the penitentiary.

President Donald Trump resumed federal executions in July and four more executions are planned before president-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021. In the US, there are several ways inmates are executed, depending on the states they are in.

Here are the five ways the US executes prisoners:

Lethal injection: The federal government and all states that have the death penalty use lethal injection as their primary method of execution.

Electric chair: It is an alternative method of execution in nine states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. These nine states have lethal injection as the primary method of execution.

Hanging: This method of execution is allowed as an alternative in three states: New Hampshire, Delaware and Washington. New Hampshire has abolished the death penalty but it may not apply retroactively. These states have lethal injection as the primary method of execution.

Lethal gas: The gas chamber is an alternative method of execution in seven states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. All have lethal injection as the primary method of execution.

Firing squad: It is an alternative method of execution in three states: Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah. All have lethal injection as the primary method of execution.

Source: Death Penalty Information Center, deathpenaltyinfo.org