The Execution Kim Kardashian Is Trying to Stop

TERRE HAUTE, Ind.–Brandon Bernard will likely die by lethal injection Dec. 10, at the federal prison in Terre Haute, unless Kim Kardashian West, is able to convince Pres. Trump to intervene. West has been Tweeting about Bernard’s case, saying she doesn’t believe he deserves the death penalty.
His lawyers have argued the same thing.
Bernard was convicted 20 years ago of killing Todd and Stacie Bagley, who were youth ministers on a trip in Texas. In 1999 Bernard shot them both in the head and set their car on fire with them still in the trunk. The two told him they forgave him first, and tried to tell him about Jesus, and sang hymns before being shot.
Bernard was one of five people who participated in the crime. He was 18 when it happened.
“Me fighting for a stay of execution does not take away from the sympathy I have for the victims Todd and Stacie Bagley, and their families. My heart breaks for everyone involved,” Tweeted West, who’s studying law. “Although all five teens were black, 11 of the 12 jurors were white. This, coupled with the misleading and incomplete information the jury was given, deprived the boys of a fair trial. Instead of being executed, Brandon could live out his sentence in prison.”
Bernard’s defense lawyers have argued against the execution on the basis of race and have said that the teenage brain is not fully developed and that teenagers may be less able to control their impulses.
“My actions at that time were not reflective of who I was,” said Bernard in an apology video. “I have tried to be a better person since that day. I can’t imagine how they (The Bagleys) feel about losing their family and I wish that we could all go back and change it and I’m sorry for all the pain I’ve caused.”

West has prevailed upon Trump before to pardon someone convicted of a federal crime. Alice Marie Johnson received a pardon in August for her drug offense in Tennessee that got her a life sentence. Trump commuted her sentence in 2018.
West is not asking for a pardon, only a stay of execution and possibly a commutation of the sentence to life in prison.
Federal executions have been proceeding since the early summer after not being performed for 17 years, at the urging of the Trump administration. All federal executions are carried out at the Terre Haute prison.