BRANDON Bernard, the death row inmate whose case Kim Kardashian West pleaded with President Donald Trump, has been executed for the 1999 murder of two youth ministers in Texas.
The federal government put the 40-year-old federal prisoner to death by lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 9:27pm CT on Thursday in Terre Haute, Indiana.
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Bernard was put to death more than four hours after his execution was initially set for 5pm CT.
He reportedly addressed the families of his victims, Todd and Stacie Bagley, through the glass window, telling them: "I'm sorry."
"That’s the only words that I can say that completely capture how I feel now and how I felt that day," he added.
Bernard's execution was the ninth carried out by the federal government in 2020 and the first during the presidential period between an election and an inauguration in more than a century.
AP: US carries out 9th federal execution of 2020, 1st during a presidential lame-duck period in 130 years. #BrandonBernard
— Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) December 11, 2020
Moments after Bernard was pronounced dead, Kardashian mourned his death in a series of tweets, saying: "This just has to change. Our system is so f**ked up."
"I’m so messed up right now. They killed Brandon," she tweeted.
"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 has caused others."
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🕊🕊🕊
🕊🕊🕊I’m so messed up right now.
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) December 11, 2020
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 has caused others.
Earlier in the day, the reality star tweeted a desperate plea to Trump, asking the president to intervene and save the black man's life.
The reality tv star revealed that she had "been crying all morning" about his death sentence.
"Brandon Bernard will be executed in 5 hours and all I can think about is his family and children and how they will feel when their loved one is gone," she tweeted.
Been crying all morning. Brandon Bernard will be executed in 6 hours.
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) December 10, 2020
Brandon Bernard will be executed in 5 hours and all I can think about is his family and children and how they will feel when their loved one is gone. 😢💔
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) December 10, 2020
Just spoke to Brandon for what will likely be the last time. 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 (@KimKardashian) December 10, 2020
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Kardashian West also revealed heartbreaking details from her final conversation with Bernard hours before his execution - a chat she described as the "hardest call I've ever had."
At one point, she said she muted the call because she didn't want him to hear her "cry like that" after he said not to because "our fight is not over."
"We didn't say goodbye because we wanted to be hopeful that we would talk again, we said talk to you soon!" she said.
Just spoke to Brandon for what will likely be the last time. 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 (@KimKardashian) December 10, 2020
When he told me he’s claustrophobic and they offered to give him a shot of Sedative to calm him down before they put him in the chair and he just didn’t want to panic, I literally lost it. I had to mute my phone so he wouldn’t hear me cry like that 😭
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) December 10, 2020
We didn’t say goodbye bc we wanted to be hopeful that we would talk again, we said talk to you soon! 💔
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) December 10, 2020
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Who were Brandon Bernard's victims Todd and Stacie Bagley?
Bernard was convicted of robbing and murdering the couple in 1999
- Todd and Stacie Bagley were Christian youth ministers from Iowa
- Before moving to Iowa, the couple attended Grace Christian Church and worked with the youth group in Texas
- On June 21, 1999, the couple stopped at a convenience store on the way to meet friends and were stopped by a group of teenagers
- The boys then robbed and murdered the couple, stuffed them in the trunk of his car and burned them
- Bernard, who was only 18 at the time of the crime, bought the lighter fluid used to torch their bodies
Kendall Jenner tweeted that it "broke her heart" to learn of the details of her sister's last call with Bernard.
One of Bernard's co-defendants, Christopher Vialva, was also executed by lethal injection on September 22.
Bernard was just 18 years old when he and four others were convicted in 1999 of killing the Bagleys in Killen, Texas.
As teenagers, the five boys held the couple at gunpoint and robbed them before shooting them, stuffing their bodies in the truck of their and torching the vehicle.
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Although Bernard's attorneys argue that he didn't have a major role in the crime, a federal jury found him guilty of murder in 2000 and placed him on death row.
An attorney acting in his defense asked a judge to postpone his execution on the grounds that mitigating evidence wasn't presented to the court at his trial 20 years ago - but the request was denied.
A petition asking the government to allow Bernard to live out the rest of his sentence at the Indiana prison gained renewed interest as his case returned to the headlines.
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Kardashian, who has secured the release of nearly two dozen prisoners, joined the campaign for Bernard and urged her 67.9million Twitter followers to support the petition.
Read More on The US Sun
She vowed to campaign non-stop during the 24 hours ahead of Bernard's scheduled date with death at the US penitentiary.
Yesterday she called on the president to commute his death sentence to allow him to spend the rest of his day behind bars, insisting his role in the shocking crime was "minor."
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