Washington, Sept 25 (AFP/APP):The United States on Thursday executed an African-American man sentenced to death for a 1999 double murder, the seventh execution of a federal inmate in three months despite pleas from his lawyers that he was not mentally an adult at the time of the crime. Christopher Andre Vialva, 40, died by lethal injection at 6:46 pm at the federal prison at Terre Haute, Indiana, the Department of Justice said. Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had rejected an appeal made by his lawyers. He was sentenced to death in 2000 after stealing a young couple’s car in Texas, locking them in the trunk, shooting them and then burning their bodies and the car. “Despite the very, very heinous nature of the crime that Christopher has been convicted for, it’s my position that based on the science, his brain was not the brain of a fully fledged adult,” Jason Chein, a professor of psychology at Temple University told CNN. It was the first time in more than 70 years that federal authorities put a teenage offender to death, the Death Penalty Information Center monitoring group said. Vialva was 19 when he committed the crimes. Nadal eyes Federer … Continue reading US executes seventh federal inmate in three months