FEDERAL prisoner Brandon Bernard will probably be executed regardless of campaigns by Kim Kardashian West and others supporting him, after a decide denied a request to raise his dying sentence conviction.
Bernard, 40, is about to be executed on Thursday and can be the ninth federal prisoner to be put to dying after the Trump administration resumed executions after a 17-year hiatus.
A jury gave Brandon Bernard the dying sentence Credit score: Twitter
Kim Kardashian West requested her Twitter followers to signal a letter urging President Donald Trump to commute Brandon Bernard’s sentence to life in jailCredit score: Getty Pictures
Bernard’s attorneys argued that prosecutors withheld a witness who spoke of their consumer’s low rank within the gang he was with that robbed and murdered Todd and Stacie Bagley in 1999.
However in an order written on Tuesday, Decide James Sweeney of the US District Court docket of the Southern District of Indiana stated that the skilled witness’s account was not compelling sufficient to beat the jury’s dying sentence choice.
Within the 1999 crime at Fort Hood in Texas, Christopher Vialva shot the Bagleys, whereas Bernard, 18 years previous on the time, set their car on fireplace with the couple inside.
Todd Bagley died of a gunshot wound, whereas Stacie Bagley died of smoke inhalation, in accordance with their post-mortem experiences.
Stacie and Todd Bagley had been murdered in 1999 by 212 Piru Bloods gang membersCredit score: Equipped
Stacie Bagley died of smoke inhalation and Todd Bagley died of a gunshot woundCredit score: Twitter
Sweeney wrote that Bernard’s sentence “displays the precise conduct on this case,” as a substitute of contemplating “hierarchy generally.”
“Particularly, the jury really useful a life sentence for Mr. Bernard the place the homicide of Mr. Bagley was instantly attributable to not Mr. Bernard however to the bullet fired by Mr. Vialva,” Sweeney wrote, in accordance with IndyStar.
“And the jury really useful a dying sentence for Mr. Bernard solely the place the homicide of Mrs. Bagley was attributable, at the very least partly, to smoke she inhaled from the fireplace instantly set by Mr. Bernard.”
Vialva was executed on Sept. 24 by deadly injection.
Kim Kardashian West stated Brandon Bernard’s case ‘horrible’ and requested that his execution be stayedCredit score: Twitter
Kim Kardashian West stated Brandon Bernard’s ‘position was minor in comparison with that of the opposite teenagers concerned’Credit score: Twitter
A number of high-profile figures have known as for Bernard’s execution to be stayed.
Over Thanksgiving weekend, actuality TV star Kardashian West requested her Twitter followers to signal a letter urging President Donald Trump to commute Bernard’s sentence to life in jail.
Kardashian West tweeted that Bernard was concerned in a “horrible crime” however “his position was minor in comparison with that of the opposite teenagers concerned, two of whom are dwelling from jail now.”
Bernard was one in every of 5 212 Piru Bloods gang members.
Two of the younger males within the gang approached Todd Bagley, a Fort Hood veteran, and requested if he might give them a journey to their uncle’s dwelling, court docket paperwork state.
Contained in the automobile, Viavla and one other man pulled weapons on the Bagleys, stole their wallets and jewellery, and compelled them into the trunk.
Vialva determined the Bagleys wanted to die and met up with Bernard and one other younger man, and Bernard poured lighter fluid over the car and lit it on fireplace, in accordance with the court docket paperwork.
Bernard is incarcerated on the US Penitentiary in Terre Haute whereas his attorneys plan to attraction Sweeney’s choice.
