Brandon Bernard Executed By Federal Government Despite Multiple Objections

Brandon Bernard, one of the convicts behind the slayings of a religious couple on a Texas military base in 1999, was executed by the Federal government on Thursday.

The news stirred a furor online, with scores of celebrities including Kim Kardashian West who were reeling under crippling grief. Bernard was put to death by lethal injection of phenobarbital inside a death chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana.

“I’m so messed up right now,” tweeted Kardashian on Thursday night, after the execution. “They killed Brandon. He was such a reformed person. So hopeful and positive until the end. More importantly, he is sorry, so sorry for the hurt and pain he caused others,” she added. The reality star reportedly made multiple calls to the federal government, requesting clemency in his case. Even his attorney's 11th-hour stay of execution was turned down by the U.S. Supreme Court, despite five jurors supporting his petition for clemency.

Over 500,000 people signed petitions urging President Trump to commute Bernard’s sentence. While the pleas were ignored

Kardashian West’s efforts were duly appreciated by Bernard in his final moments before death. As per his attorney, these were his exact words to Kanye’s wife: “Brandon said he loves you, and wants to say thank you again,” she tweeted that the lawyer told her. “He said he doesn’t feel too claustrophobic in the chair.”

Bernard was among five teenagers convicted of abducting Todd and Stacie Bagley — a young couple who were shot in the trunk of their car. Christopher Vialva pulled the trigger on the couple, while Bernard lit the vehicle on fire. They were subjected to the death penalty. Vialva’s execution place in September. The other three were excluded from the death penalty as they were minors at the time of the incident.

The other three teens were under 17 at the time of the crime and avoided the death penalty. Five jurors in Bernard’s trial supported his petition for clemency.

The jurors felt that Bernard was guilty, but felt he did not intend to kill the Bagleys and thought his lawyers did not defend him well.

Bernard’s last message to youngster was to “not hang out with the wrong crowd. He apologized for his crime, in his final words. “I’m sorry,” he said, according to a media witness. “That’s the only words that I can say that completely capture how I feel now and how I felt that day," he apologized to the relatives of the victim.

Four more federal executions, including one Friday, have been planned in the weeks before the presidential inauguration.