Brandon Bernard, 18, who was involved in a 1999 double murder in Texas, died Thursday evening from a lethal injection in a federal prison, excluding 11 hours of successful intervention or prosecution by the Trump administration.
The case has gained new interest in recent weeks and at the time of the crime began a debate over whether the death penalty is a necessary punishment for a barely legal adult. Now, at the age of 0, he is set to become the youngest person in almost seven decades to be hanged by the coalition government, depending on his age at the time of the crime.
His execution is set for CT at 5 p.m. in Indiana Terre Houtney Federal Prison. Three hours ago, the Federal Court of Appeal, which includes Indiana, rejected an emergency request to stop the execution of Bernard’s lawyers, although legal efforts were pending in other courts.
Bernard will be the ninth person to be executed by the federal government this year after the Department of Justice began the death penalty in July after a gap of 17 years at the federal level.
This year, states have upheld the death penalty due to fears of the spread of coronavirus in prisons. But the rising number of Kovid-19 cases and deaths in recent months has not stopped the federal government from working in the last week of Donald Trump’s presidency.
On Wednesday, Bernard’s lawyers asked the Federal Court of Appeal to temporarily suspend his execution, while they claim that his case did not prevent the use of illegal evidence that could lead to a life sentence for judges. Five judges then confirmed that they no longer upheld the death sentence in the case, while the former prosecutor who challenged Bernard’s appeal for his death sentence now says he does not believe he should be sentenced to death, in part because, because That he was a juvenile offender and the model became a prisoner.
Bernard’s attorney, Rob Owen, said, “Although the five jurors will not stand on his death sentence for long, Brandon should not be sentenced to death until he has fully considered the constitutionality of his sentence.”
In addition, reality television star Kim Kardashian West, who has taken the lead in the cause of criminal justice, has again called on millions of her followers on social media this week to appeal to Trump for Bernard’s sentencing. She tweeted early Thursday that she was crying “all morning” before the appellate court’s decision hearing.
Democratic Sense. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Corey Booker of New Jersey also allowed members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to plead with Trump, arguing that “the death penalty in the United States is fatally flawed in its imposition and disproportionately imposed on the race.”
Attorney General William Barre said in July that those sentenced to death were among the “worst offenders” and acknowledged the victims’ desire to get justice. The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment on the next batch of planned executions.
Aside from Bernard’s case, the federal government has scheduled four more executions, including one Friday. All include black men, except for the case of Lisa Montgomery, who is due to die next month and will be the first woman to be executed by the federal government in nearly a decade.
Death penalty experts say there is no parallel to the way the Trump administration has proceeded with the convenience of executions during the lame-duck period, and in the past, the outgoing administration will defer incoming cases. President-elect Joe Biden campaigned for suspended support for the death penalty and advocated life imprisonment without probation or parole.
Bernard was sentenced to death for his role in a robbery plot by a group of 15- to 19-year-old friends in a remote area of the Fort Hood Military Reserve near Killen, Texas. The victims, Todd and Stacey Bagley, married young clergymen who were white, were abducted and shot in the head before their car caught fire, according to court documents.
Bernard’s lawyers argue that he was a follower in the conspiracy and did not know the couple would be killed. Another adult defendant tried with Bernard, Christopher Vialva, who was the accused ringleader, was hanged in September. The other three adults involved were not eligible for the death penalty and received a prison sentence when the crime occurred.
The victim’s family has said that despite reports of how co-defendants turned their lives upside down in prison, they still support his execution.
“Please remember the victims and their families whose lives have been ruined and are still trying to cope,” Todd Bugle’s mother said in an earlier statement.
