How the Trump Administration Is on a Killing Spree
By: Megan Benson
Tags: Trump Administration, Trump, Murder, Death Penalty, Politics

How the Trump Administration Is on a Killing Spree

The Trump administration carried out its ninth execution of the year and the first during a presidential lame-duck period in 130 years. Megan Benson Follow Dec 20, 2020 · 5 min read

The case of Brandon Bernard was a rare execution of someone who was in his teens when his crime was committed. Bernard, 40, was one of five gang members convicted in Texas of killing Stacie and Todd Bagley — who were youth ministers — in 1999. The gunman, Christopher Vialva, was executed in September, while the other co-defendants were given lesser sentences according to CNN.

“I’m sorry … I wish I could take it all back, but I can’t,” Bernard said to the family of the Bagleys during his three-minute last words. “That’s the only words that I can say that completely capture how I feel now and how I felt that day.”

The Bagley family thanked Trump and the federal government for carrying out the sentence in their statements.

Bernard was executed by the federal government on Thursday at the Federal Correctional Center in Terre Haute, Indiana, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

According to ACLU.org; Nineteen states have laws permitting the execution of persons who committed crimes at sixteen or seventeen. Since 1973, 226 juvenile death sentences have been imposed. Twenty-two juvenile offenders have been executed and 82 remain on death row.

Bernard was the 9th federal inmate executed in the US in 2020, and he won’t be the last.

There are five scheduled executions to take place before Trump leaves the White House in 2021, and one took place on December 10, 2020.

Is Trump trying to go out with a bang? Making history by pushing forward on these 5 executions before he leaves the Oval Office? I find it interesting when experts chime in and are so against this but our broken system pushes forward to take someone's life so easily.

“This is really outside the norm, in a pretty extreme way,” said Ngozi Ndulue, director of research at the non-partisan Death Penalty Information Center.

Death penalty experts say the way the Trump administration is moving ahead with executions during a lame-duck period has no parallel, and that in the past, the outgoing administration would defer such cases to the incoming one. President-elect Joe Biden campaigned in support of a moratorium on the death penalty, favoring instead life sentences without probation or parole. According to CBS News.

Who was Brandon Bernard

Bernard was 18 when he and four other teenagers abducted and robbed Todd and Stacie Bagley on their way from a Sunday service in Killeen, Texas. Although, Bernard was not the trigger man in this case he was given the death penalty based on the face that Staci died from smoke inhalation according to the prosecutors at the time of conviction.

New evidence suggests that Bernard may not have killed Stacie. Prosecutors told the jury that Stacie died from smoke inhalation from the fire that Brandon lit. And for that reason, they asked that Brandon be given the death penalty. But an independent medical examiner hired by the defense team determined after the trial that Stacie was “medically dead” after being shot, before the fire started, according to CBS News.

Campaigners have said that, at the time of his conviction, both prosecutors and jurors had an incomplete picture of Bernard and his background.

Kim Kardashian West got involved in November 2020 advocating for Bernard. She typically uses her power on her multiple social media platforms to advocate for people like Bernard, where this just isn’t enough evidence.

“While Brandon did participate in this crime, his role was minor compared to that of the other teens involved, two of whom are home from prison now.”-Kim Kardashian West

Kardashian West would be one of the last people that Barnard spoke with before being put to death by lethal injection.

“Hardest call I’ve ever had. Brandon, selfless as always, was focused on his family and making sure they are ok. He told me not to cry because our fight isn’t over.” — Kim Kardashian West

Kim requested for Bernard to serve a life sentence rather than be put to death. She took to Twitter to say;

“A terrible case has been brought to my attention and I need your help.

“First, I want to say that a terrible crime was committed and me fighting for a stay of execution does not take away from the sympathy I have for the victim’s Todd and Stacie Bagley, and their families.

“My heart breaks for everyone involved.”

Late Thursday evening Attorneys Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr joined Bernard’s legal team and had filed a petition with the Supreme Court requesting to delay the execution for two weeks, so they could get up to speed on Bernard’s case. The attorneys’ most recent and notable client was President Donald Trump during his impeachment hearings earlier this year.

The Supreme Court denied the petition, with three justices issuing public dissents.

“Brandon’s execution is a stain on America’s criminal justice system. But I pray that even in his death, Brandon will advance his commitment to helping others by moving us closer to a time when this country does not pointlessly and maliciously kill young Black men who pose no threat to anyone,” Bernard’s attorney Robert Owens said in a statement.

The court’s decision left Trump as Bernard’s last hope. The President did not act.

Look, I am all about the death penalty if it is without a doubt a case that justifies it. I can’t help but think in Barnard’s case there was more to it and I would have liked to see him have the time to share that. I don’t believe he was given a fair trial. I think our system is so broken that we push forward and kill people that don’t always deserve it.

I have a hard time imaging someone with Barnard’s childhood and start to adulthood was going to avoid prison. He was set up for failure, and we as American’s failed him on his last day. We let serial killers, child murders get away with more because they take a plea deal, yet we couldn’t give 2 more weeks to potentially look into evidence that would show Barnard didn’t deserve the death penalty.

In my closing though, if we were still in the pre-election phase, Trump would have stepped in and gave two more weeks to this man.