Witness to an execution: The human cost of the death penalty

Journalist Liz Bruening recently wrote of her experience being present for an execution and her own family’s ties to tragedy in Arlington.

Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of violence towards children and the process of an execution that some readers may find disturbing.

In 2004, Alfred Bourgeois was convicted of torturing and murdering his toddler daughter at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi. 

According to the prosecution in the case, Bourgeois had abused and neglected her before finally smashing her head against the inside of his truck. 

Because the murder took place on a military base, Bourgeois was tried by the federal government and after he was convicted, he was given the death penalty by lethal injection in 2020. 

RELATED | Alfred Bourgeois executed by federal government 24 hours after federal execution of Brandon Bernard

The execution made national headlines and members of the media were in attendance to witness it, including Liz Bruenig. She’s been writing about the death penalty for years now and joined the Texas Standard to talk about her reflections. Listen to the interview here or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: You witnessed the execution of Alfred Bourgeois. Could you tell us a bit about what it looked and sounded like?

Liz Bruenig: Yes, you know, I went in not really knowing what to expect. And on prison grounds, there are multiple buildings, and the media gathered in one building and waited for the execution to get underway.

And at that time, we were taken elsewhere by van to the execution chamber on the prison grounds. It’s a small room, the actual execution chamber inside this building is small and tiled and contains a gurney and not much other space. And it’s like a spoke and a wheel.

And so the other rooms that are adjacent share a window with that room so the viewers can look in. In those rooms are families of the victims, families of the offender, law enforcement officials, and prosecutors at times. And then the media.

We were seated in plastic chairs looking into this window. We were seated at Mr. Bourgeois’ feet. They lowered a microphone in, allowed him to say his last words. He said he was innocent, which is something his family still contends – or members of his family still contend. I haven’t looked into those innocence claims, but that’s something that they say.

At any rate, he was connected via IV line to a source you couldn’t see. The IV line went through a hole in the wall. But the lethal injection, the poison essentially, is behind that wall in a bag. And the medication was administered and they don’t tell you when that happens. We just started to see a reaction, and Mr. Bourgeois started to sort of heave and jerk on the gurneys, his body moved in these sort of jerking contractions.

And at that point, a doctor came in and listened to his heart and declared him dead. And then we were filed back out into vans and taken back to the building we gathered.

Well, Texas leads the nation in executions since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld its use in 1976. Do you chalk that figure up to population size, or do you think Texas takes a fundamentally different approach to criminal justice? 

Yeah, I think a lot of it certainly has to do with population size. Some of it definitely has to do with cultural approaches to capital punishment. Texas, you know, it’s an Old West state in a lot ways.

I was born and raised in Texas. I grew up in Arlington. And I love that about Texas. I love the can-do attitude. I love independence.

But I think it comes with a kind of brand of justice that I consider too harsh and not merciful enough. And I say that with great love and adoration for Texas. On this one point, I just disagree. 

You have, unfortunately, a connection to some of the horrific crime that victims are familiar with. You write about your sister-in-law who, I’m so sorry to say, was murdered in Arlington. Could you talk a little bit about your family’s experience being on that side of such a horrible crime?

Yes, my sister-in-law was 18 months older than my husband and all of us went to the same high school in North Texas. Her name was Heather. She was very lively and very friendly – extremely outgoing.

One day in the summer of 2016, actually only a couple weeks after the birth of our firstborn, we received a call. It was Matt’s dad and his sister had been murdered. And I mean, my husband immediately had to pick up and go back to Texas to help his family.

You know, for a long time afterwards, he was pretty depressed. It, I think, took him to a dark place and I know even now he’s marked that. You know, the more our daughter looks like Heather, sounds like Heather, the more he’s reminded that he’s now older than Heather was when she died. And it’s sort of disconcerting and it is very, very difficult emotionally.

Did beliefs about the death penalty come up in your family’s ongoing reconciliation with what happened?

Yeah, you know, there are members of Matt’s family, certainly, who say they wish he could have received the death penalty. But my husband and I think my husband and his father, Heather’s father, you know, are pretty consistently against the death penalty.

And you know what’s interesting to me – and I have, you know, I admire this in them – is that they haven’t wavered in those principles of opposing capital punishment despite what happened. I think that even having principled opposition to the death penalty doesn’t mean that if something terrible were to happen to you, if a loved one were to be murdered in some horrible way, that you would still feel the same way that you do on balance.

I often think to myself, as someone who opposes the death penalty, that if it were my child being murdered, I don’t know what I would think. I mean, it’s totally possible I would find myself quite on the other side of it because those experiences are, you know, they change you in a lot of ways. And I was just taken with my husband and his family, their willingness to accept another kind of justice.

You’ve worked for some of the biggest media outlets in the world. Do you feel like your reporting on the death penalty has changed anyone’s mind?

I sincerely hope so.

Some of the most satisfying notes from readers I have ever received have come from my own family. My family is a good old conservative Texas family and I love them and I wouldn’t change a thing about them. But we have differences and this is one of our differences.

But I’ve heard from members of my family that they’ve thought about things in a different way. That’s the most meaningful to me – is, you know, connecting with them on this.

Source: texasstandard.org, Sean Saldana, June 18, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde