Kim Kardashian West tweets Trump to stop Brandon Bernard’s execution
Kim Kardashian West is asking her millions of followers to help her stop the execution of Brandon Bernard.
The reality star tweeted Wednesday that she would be tweeting about the inmate for the next 24 hours in support of #SaveBrandonBernard.
“Brandon Bernard, a 40-year-old father is going to be executed tomorrow by our federal government. Having gotten to know Brandon, I am heartbroken about this execution,” Kardashian West tweeted. “I’m calling on @realDonaldTrump to grant Brandon a commutation and allow him to live out his sentence in prison.”
Bernard is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Thursday for his 2000 conviction in the 1999 kidnapping and killing of youth ministers Todd and Stacie Bagley on a military reservation in Texas.
One of Bernard’s co-defendants, Christopher Vialva, was executed on September 22. Vialva was 19 at the time of the murders.
Vialva shot the couple in the head, after which Bernard set the car on fire with them still in the trunk, the Justice Department said. Both were sentenced to the death penalty, while three other teenage defendants received lengthy prison sentences.
Kardashian West tweeted a number supporters could call to try and save Bernard’s life and also shared why she believed he should be spared.
“#BrandonBernard should not be executed: 1. He was 18 at the time. 2. He was not the shooter. 3. The prosecutor and 5 of the jurors now support clemency. 4. He’s spent decades in prison w/out a write up, helping at risk youth. 5. There’s bipartisan support for his commutation,” she wrote.
Bernard’s attorneys write on his website that he remains remorseful for his actions.
“Brandon has spent 20 years reflecting on his role in the deaths of both Todd and Stacie Bagley. Brandon is remorseful and ashamed that his actions and inaction contributed to their untimely deaths. Brandon knows that he has inflicted immense pain and suffering on the Bagley family, for which he is deeply sorry,” the attorneys write.
Kardashian West has had success with her criminal justice advocacy which she went public with in 2018.
That’s when she aided in the release of Alice Marie Johnson, a first-time non-violent drug offender who had served 21 years of a life sentence, by appealing to President Trump during a meeting at the White House.
The President commuted Johnson’s sentence and she was released a week later.
