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A man sentenced to the death penalty died this Thursday by lethal injection, at a time when the government of Donald Trump carried out a series of federal executions in his last days in power in the United States, ignoring requests for clemency and the pandemic of covid-19.
Brandon Bernard, a 40-year-old African-American, was executed in a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, for his role in a 1999 double murder committed in Texas when he was 18 years old.
More than 500,000 people signed petitions urging Trump to commute Bernard’s sentence to life in prison, citing his age at the time of the crime and his good behavior as a prisoner.
Among those who lent their support to Bernard was reality TV star Kim Kardashian.
“While Brandon was involved in this crime, his role was minor compared to the other teens involved, two of whom are at home now.”
Bernard and four other black teenagers were convicted of kidnapping Todd and Stacie Bagley, a white couple from Iowa. They were forced to withdraw cash before shooting and burning them in their car.
Because the crime took place on a US military base, he was tried in federal court.
The shooter, Christopher Vialva, then 19, and Bernard, who set the car on fire, were sentenced to death in 2000.
Vialva was executed by lethal injection in September, but other participants in the events who were under the age of 17 at the time avoided the death penalty.
“Brandon made a terrible mistake at 18 years old. But he didn’t kill anyone, and he never stopped feeling shame and deep remorse, ”said his attorney Robert C. Owen after the execution.
Bernard is the ninth federal prisoner to be executed since July, when the Trump administration resumed federal executions after a 17-year hiatus.
Despite Trump’s defeat in the Nov.3 presidential election – which he refuses to acknowledge – his administration plans to carry out more federal executions before he leaves office.
For 131 years, outgoing presidents traditionally suspended federal executions during the transition period.
The last federal execution is scheduled for January 15, just five days before Democrat Joe Biden takes office. Biden has vowed to end federal executions.
Before July, there had only been three federal executions in the last 45 years.
There has also been criticism that the federal government resumed executions in the midst of the pandemic, when states like Texas – which carries out the largest number – suspended them out of concern for prison staff, witnesses and families of victims.
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