Brandon Bernard, who was 18 years old when he participated in a 1999 double killing in Texas, was killed via lethal injection at a federal prison Thursday, regardless of eleventh-hour efforts for court intervention and appeals.
What We Know:
- Bernard, 40 at the time he was executed, was the youngest person, based on his age when the crime occurred, in nearly seventy years to be put to death by the federal government. The Supreme Court refused a plea for an emergency stay Thursday night, and Bernard was declared dead at 9:27 p.m., local time.
- In the minutes before his death, a peaceful Bernard spoke directly to the family of the couple he killed. “I’m sorry,” he mentioned. “That’s the only words that I can say that completely capture how I feel now and how I felt that day.”
As he was in the chair his attorney called me and they just had their last call and said this…
Brandon said he loves you and wants to say thank you again
He said he doesn’t feel too claustrophobic in the chair. 💔— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) December 11, 2020
“Brandon made one terrible mistake at age 18,” expressed his lawyer, Robert C. Owen. “But he did not execute anyone, and he never stopped feeling shame and profound remorse for his actions in the crime that took the lives of Todd and Stacie Bagley. And he spent the rest of his life sincerely trying to show, as he put it, that he ‘was not that person.'”
- Bernard was given the death sentence for his role in a robbery scheme executed by a group of friends between the ages 15 to 19 on a secluded stretch of the Fort Hood military reservation near Killeen, Texas. According to court documents, the victims, Todd and Stacie Bagley, married youth ministers who were white, were kidnapped and shot execution-style in their heads before the car they were in was set on fire.
- Bernard’s attorneys disputed that he was a follower in the scheme and had not known the couple would be killed. Another adult defendant that was tried with Bernard, Christopher Vialva, charged with being the leader, was killed in September. Three other people involved were not of age when the crime took place and was ineligible for the death penalty; instead, they received prison sentences.
- Bernard was the ninth person that was executed by the federal government this year after the Justice Department resumed executions in July after a 17-year break on the federal level.
- Bernard’s attorneys requested federal appeals court Wednesday to temporarily pause his execution while they sought claims that the prosecution at his trial unconstitutionally kept evidence that would have led jurors to give him a life sentence. Including pleas and appeals for clemency from Kim Kardashian West, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, and others.
I could go on and on about what an amazing person Brandon was. I do know he left this earth feeling supported and loved and at peace. 🕊
This just has to change: our system is so fucked up— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) December 11, 2020
- Apart from Bernard’s case, the federal government has programmed four more executions, including one on Friday. All include Black men except Lisa Montgomery, who is set to die next month and is set to be the first woman in almost 70 years to be killed by the federal government.
- Death penalty experts mention that the way the Trump administration moves ahead with executions during a lame-duck period has no parallel. In the past, the outgoing administration would concede such cases to the incoming one. President-elect Joe Biden campaigned to support a moratorium on the death penalty, favoring life sentences instead without probation or parole.
In July, Attorney General William Barr said that those given death penalties were “among the worst criminals” and declared a want to bring justice to the victims. The Justice Department did not answer a demand for additional comment on the next group of planned executions.
