He is an actor and writer, known for Dragon Ball Z: Doragon bôru zetto (1989), One Piece (1999) and Hiroikku eiji (2007). In a beat-up van, Garrett, his first wife Eunice, and their small children, drove to California in 1945 in pursuit of opportunity. Unfortunately for Courtney, his master plan goes wildly awry, ending in the most terrifying of outcomes: An election victory. David Krumholtz, Actor: The Deuce. Supporters say that, at the time of his conviction, both prosecutors and jurors had an incomplete picture of Bernard and his background. Justice Sotomayor began her dissent with a bold roll call of those executed by the federal government: “Daniel Lee, Wesley Purkey, Dustin Honken, Lezmond Mitchell, Keith Nelson, William LeCroy Jr., Christopher Vialva, Orlando Hall, Brandon Bernard, Alfred Bourgeois, Lisa Montgomery, and, just last night, Corey … Most Small Business Owners Still Haven’t Had Their PPP Loans Forgiven, Biden’s War Policy Offers Chance for Change — or More of the Same, The Military’s Failure to Reckon With White Supremacy in Its Ranks. For a time, they all slept together in the living room because it felt strange to sleep in their rooms while he was incarcerated. “It seemed like a long time before we were able to accept that Brandon was gone and move back into our separate beds.”, In his latest emails, Bernard has expressed gratitude for the growing number of people who have asked for his life be spared. Kim Kardashian called for Bernard to serve a life sentence rather than be put to death. Yet unlike Hall, who was a lead participant in the abduction, rape, and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1994, Bernard’s role in the Bagleys’ murder was comparatively small. 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. One former federal prosecutor who previously defended Bernard’s conviction agrees. At one point, prison guards brought some food for Hall in the middle of the night. Instead, they would both be randomly targeted by teens looking for a quick buck. But in a declaration last month, he wrote that the evidence “clearly showed” that Bernard was not the ringleader in the crime. They were the first federal death sentences in the Western District of Texas, U.S. Attorney Bill Blagg announced. In a phone call, Blagg, who is now retired, said he did not remember most of the details. I'm very clean and organized. Years ago, he shared his story as part of a youth advocacy project called the Enlightenment Tour, started by twin brothers who knew him in Killeen. He was with Orlando Hall on the death range during Hall’s final days. Given that five jurors no longer stand by their death verdict, Brandon must not be executed until the courts have fully addressed the constitutionality of his sentence, and we will continue to vigorously pursue that vitally important goal.”. In 2016, his legal team submitted the petition to the Obama administration. on about your day, ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadn’t done it? Perhaps just as important to Andreassen today is Bernard’s age at the time of the crime. Rimowa CEO Alexandre Arnault, 28, son of LVMH CEO Bernard, 71, proposed to Géraldine Guyot, founder of French accessories brand D'Estrëe, shortly before Christmas. This distinction was key, he said, since the former would not preclude the presence of the soot found in Stacie Bagley’s airways. He didn’t know what they wanted but when he saw it was food I’m sure he was relieved that is all it was.”, Around 10 p.m., Bernard turned on the TV for news but did not find any. “The burnt bodies — I’ll never get that out of my mind.”, “If the information presented in this report had been presented at trial, I would have made a different decision at sentencing.”, “Black teens like Brandon are systematically denied the ‘benefit’ of their youth.”, “I didn’t even feel like I had a date when I was with them.”. They had two children, Christopher and Kelly Braden. As McClung recalls, Bernard’s gang affiliation helped nudge him toward a death sentence. He also left him some of his property. Bernard is a French and West Germanic masculine given name.. Although prosecutors repeatedly stressed that he was the only one in a position to set the car on fire, neither Lewis nor Brown said they saw him do it. After the teenagers drove to different shopping areas looking for targets, Lewis approached Todd Bagley at a phone booth outside a Mickey’s convenience store. Very respectful ... View Brandon's profile. But he admitted that it was hard not to be discouraged by the Zoom hearing, which he watched from inside the penitentiary. After the trial, he became a clinical psychologist; his perspective has been shaped by his professional experience evaluating people behind bars, especially following groundbreaking neurological research that forced the courts to recognize youth as a powerful mitigating factor in even the most violent crimes. As Blagg recalled it, he was impressed with the juror’s answers during voir dire and decided to allow him on the jury. The kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. We don’t have ads, so we depend on our members — 35,000 and counting — to help us hold the powerful to account. Indeed, according to one juror who supports clemency for Bernard, the autopsy findings were the main reason he voted for a death sentence. In the meantime, Vialva and the others had pulled a gun on Todd Bagley, demanding his wallet and his wife’s jewelry and forcing them into the trunk of their car. The same year that Pustilnik gave his declaration, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling that would lead to the discovery of new evidence in the case. Although he did not say anything specific about Vialva or Bernard, his testimony cast them as posing a future danger to their surroundings, no matter how restrictive. Brandon Bernard as a teenager with his mother, sister, and brother. He “did not expect anything from us except to get his message out to the kids.”. This year, the event was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. In his opinion, defense attorneys should have hired an expert who could have pushed back on the prosecutors’ insistence that the fire had contributed to her death. “I have never been able to hug my dad, but mentally and emotionally he is there for me as much as possible,” Taneah wrote in a declaration when she was 16 years old. He commuted only two death sentences before departing the White House. “I was shocked when they set the date for Brandon,” his attorney Rob Owen said. But Obama never acted on it. He said he and another juror were wavering when another man — the sole Black juror in the case — told them that he was familiar with the gang. It was sunny and mild. Bernard’s lawyers also emphasized the lack of physical evidence linking their client to the fire. But they’re originally from Texas. The justices ruled in Miller v. Alabama that mandatory life without parole sentences for people who had committed their crimes before the age of 18 were a violation of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Photo: Courtesy of Brandon Bernard’s defense team. “Brandon Bernard, also known as ‘Dip,’ is at the very bottom of the chart,” Killeen Police Department Sgt. She labeled the cause of death a “gunshot wound of the head associated with smoke inhalation and thermal injury.” In his closing statement in the guilt phase, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Frost stressed this repeatedly. The decision was based on scientific and sociological research that confirmed what “any parent knows,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote: that kids simply do not have the same level of maturity as adults. This makes youths more vulnerable to peer pressure and leads to “impetuous and ill-considered actions and decisions,” he wrote. The administration is reexamining Trump-era rules governing drone strikes and commando missions outside of conventional war zones, along with much else. “Together we waited. “First I thought that it was going to be sad … that I was going to have this elephant in the room, but it was the opposite. “He said, ‘You know, Brandon Bernard is up to be executed really soon.’ And I said, ‘No, I had no idea,’” she said. With witnesses looking on from behind a glass barrier separating them from a pale-green death chamber, Bernard used his last words to apologize to the victim's families. Bernard, too, grew up on death row. Five more people are set to die before the inauguration of Joe Biden. In fact, they did not call any witnesses during the guilt phase at all. Trump Prepares to Kill Brandon Bernard Even as Jurors Say His Life Should Be Spared At age 18, Bernard was an accomplice to a murder. This is largely thanks to an online campaign launched by his legal team, which includes testimonials, family photographs, and a lengthy clemency petition that highlights numerous problems in his case. “My mom, my brother Max, and I prayed together all of the time for Brandon and the victims’ families,” she wrote. But the judge ruled against them, saying that he had no jurisdiction in the matter. Bagley agreed to give him a ride. He never understood why the two had been tried as a pair. “I have for a long time wanted, wished for an opportunity like this,” McClung said. News of his execution rocked his family when Bernard was first handed the sentence. "My heart is broken over the thought of my nephew being executed," Rahsha Williams, his aunt said. $850 He was administered a lethal injection on December 10. Among them was Tony Sparks, one of the younger teenagers involved in the Bagleys’ death. … Black teens like Brandon are systematically denied the ‘benefit’ of their youth, which is outweighed by their race in the eyes of police, prosecutors, judges and jurors.”, In a phone call, Moore said she was especially bothered by the way prosecutors cast Bernard as a future danger. In an email to his supporters last month, he described the terror of execution nights. Sandra Hunt testified, “about 30 people below Mr. Sparks.”. In 2016, two investigators came and interviewed him on tape at his workplace. His parents divorced and Brandon was largely isolated, according to Daily Kos. He is an actor and producer, known for The Deuce (2017), The Plot Against America (2020) and Numb3rs (2005). Today, she is a defense attorney and professor. “I just listened. "I'm sorry," the dad-of-two said, lifting his head and looking at witness-room windows. “He was asleep and I could hear his confusion about being awoken. … If the information presented in this report had been presented at trial, I would have made a different decision at sentencing.”. Moore was having lunch in Austin not long after Vialva’s execution when she mentioned the case to her colleague. Heart Gallery Alabama 3100 Independence Dr., Ste 200 Birmingham, AL 35209 (205) 445-1293 (205) 445-1294 (fax) info@heartgalleryalabama.com Brandon’s attorneys did not do anything to dispute this. And I think you have to be very careful.”. Georgia Bagley, Todd’s mother, told the Statesman that her son fell for Stacie after watching her sing in the church choir at Grace Christian Center in Killeen. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling, Roper v. Simmons, which outlawed death sentences for defendants who committed their crimes before the age of 18. Go here to read his incredible story, "From Disabled and $500k in Debt to a Pro Blogger with 5 Million Monthly Visitors." The victims, a young white couple from Iowa named Todd and Stacie Bagley, were visiting Killeen, Texas, when they were carjacked and killed by a group of Black teenagers. “They came back afterwards with a cart to clean out his room. 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. Mr. Bernard Felix Ostmeier, age 90, of Peachtree City, passed away February 1, 2021. “It might not seem like much of a relationship, but it is the best one I have and it is important to me.” The most recent visits were with Bernard’s mother and siblings, one of his aunts, and Kiara. These final stages of respiration have “nothing to do with consciousness or any higher brain function.” Even before the fire was set, Stacie Bagley’s death was a “forgone conclusion.”, Bernard’s lawyers argue that prosecutors misled the jury, fostering the mistaken impression that Stacie Bagley could have survived the gunshot if not for the fire. “The burnt bodies — I’ll never get that out of my mind.”, Bernard’s death sentence hinged largely on the testimony of a medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Stacie Bagley. There were some holes in the case against Bernard. One of them is Bernard. Flower girl dress row that ended 'in tears' between Meghan Markle & Kate Middleton, Meg breaks down and says she told Harry she ‘didn’t want to live anymore’, Meg claims royals' concerns over Archie's 'dark skin' meant he wasn't prince, Royal fans recall duchess' chat with Oprah ahead of Meghan and Harry's interview, © 2020 THE SUN, US, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY | YOUR AD CHOICES | SITEMAP, Comments are subject to our community guidelines, which can be viewed, Brandon Bernard was executed on December 10, Bernard is thought to have grown up in Texas, Bernard was an accomplice to a murder when he was 18-years-old, Bernard was sentenced to death for his involvement, Thelma Bernard, his mother, was allegedly abused by his father, Not many details are known about Bernard's siblings, Brandon died having never been able to touch his children, convicted in 1999 with four other teenagers, called for Bernard to serve a life sentence, denied a request to lift the death sentence, Bernard used his last words to apologize to the victim's families. She found smoke deposits in her airways and concluded that Stacie had been alive after being shot in the face. For the past few years, his wife has been corresponding with two incarcerated pen pals; the McClungs hope to help the men adapt to the outside world after their release. Yet they didn’t call any experts who might have questioned the forensic evidence. “Brandon Bernard has been seeking relief since we discovered in 2018 that the trial prosecutors withheld critical evidence, yet procedural barriers have prevented him from obtaining a hearing on the merits of his claim,” Owen wrote in a statement. “I can’t imagine what they’ve gone through. News of his execution rocked his family when Bernard was … This is largely due to his faith, but it’s also informed by his own experiences with the U.S. prison system. “He’s one of those people who is almost defined by the group he is with.”. Yet he specifically remembered the sole Black juror at trial, who has since died. Both convictions relied on witnesses who themselves were involved in the crime and agreed to testify for the government in exchange for leniency. On Thursday, Brandon Bernard was put to death for his part in the 1999 killing of a young couple in Texas. Inside the Special Confinement Unit in Terre Haute, where the condemned spend 23 hours a day in their cells, he’d developed a reputation as a stabilizing presence. Brandon Potter, Actor: Dragon Ball Z: Doragon bôru zetto. “It was especially great to see my daughter because I don’t ever get to see her,” Bernard wrote. “We will continue to make our case in court that this hidden evidence would have changed the outcome of Brandon’s sentencing. The Intercept is a First Look Media Company. Bernard's mother is Thelma Bernard, but not much is known of his father. They were Vialva, Bernard, 16-year-old Tony Sparks, and two others, the youngest 15. McClung voted to sentence both of them to death. McClung’s video statement was accompanied by a declaration that would become part of a clemency petition for Bernard. David Krumholtz was born on May 15, 1978 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. 2:21 PM PT-- Kim says she just shared a heartbreaking call with Brandon Bernard as his time runs out, at one point having to mute the phone so he couldn't hear her cry. Reportedly, Brandon grew up with an abusive father who violently attacked his mother. In a phone call, a juror who does not support clemency for Bernard remembered the crime scene images as particularly horrific. Bernard, too, had dropped out of school, but he did not have the same history of run-ins with the law. If you want to send Brandon a quick message, then visit his contact page here. The pyramid appeared to lay out a hierarchy of the members of the gang. Miller eventually led to resentencing hearings for juvenile defendants all over the country. Dr. Stephen Pustilnik, the chief medical examiner in Galveston County, Texas, reviewed the autopsy records for Stacie Bagley, along with the testimony about her death at trial. In statement shared on Twitter by The New York Times, Bernard's lawyer noted his "two beautiful and talented daughters.". Blagg did not wish to elaborate on who, exactly, pushed back on selecting a Black juror at the time. The Trump Justice Department is on track to execute 13 people before the end of his presidency — more federal executions than the past 67 years combined. Overhead view of where the Bagleys’ car was found in Fort Hood, Texas, left of Quarry Road. On a Saturday morning in November, Gary McClung sat at a picnic table with his wife overlooking a field off the banks of the Duck River in Tennessee. He expressed sorrow for the Bagley family. The Flint water crisis was a public health crisis that started in 2014 and lasted until 2019, after the drinking water for the city of Flint, Michigan was contaminated with lead and Legionnaires' disease. “It was heartbreaking to hear him talk about how hopeful his family was when they heard about the stay and not wanting to tell them to keep their hopes down because it wasn’t guaranteed that it will all work out,” Bernard wrote. “One of the things that was so confusing to us at the time was the way the story was told,” recalled Adam Andreassen, who was a youth pastor with the Bernard family’s congregation, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and attended portions of the trial. Consider what the world of media would look like without The Intercept. “I don’t understand why leniency would not be considered just from that standpoint.”. “Brandon Bernard, a 40-year-old father, is going to be executed tomorrow by our federal government,” Kardashian, 40, had tweeted the day before the execution, on Wednesday. “But it would come back to mind.” He wondered if there was anything he could do, “somebody to contact and at least put a voice in after the fact,” he said. In 2000, he was called as a juror in a federal murder trial. “But he was a real nice man and he voted for a conviction and eventually, well, here we are.”. Every day was a blessing and I cherished every one moment that I was out there. “And I think that’s a big problem.”, In a Zoom hearing on December 2, Bernard’s lawyers tried to convince a federal judge to put off his execution date to allow them to litigate the Brady claim. Log in with either your Library Card Number or EZ Login. I'm a very private person whoz tired of living with hiz children. “When Brandon Bernard lit that fire,” he said, “Stacie Bagley was still living.”, On June 1, 2000, the jury convicted both Vialva and Bernard. Seven years later, he, his wife and two children … “It stated that Stacie Bagley did not just die from the gunshot wound, but also from smoke inhalation,” he said in a 2016 declaration. “I’m not going to lie,” he wrote. "It hurts, first of all, to know that they want to execute him," Thelma said to WTHI . In the fall, Centerville River Park, some 60 miles southwest of Nashville, hosts the annual National Banana Pudding Festival, featuring music, face painting, and a cook-off. She found it disturbing — and ironic — that the BOP witness did not reveal the hierarchical nature of gangs given how often such gang structures are invoked in prosecuting federal conspiracy cases involving organized crime. “I used the restroom, and he was playing video games,” Brown testified. Joining is simple and doesn’t need to cost a lot: You can become a sustaining member for as little as $3 or $5 a month. He has been married to Ardis Campbell since June … Posted December 9, 2020 The editorial was co-written by clinical psychologist Idia Thurston, an associate professor of psychology and public health at Texas A&M University and registered dietitian Kendrin Sonneville, an assistant … At the time of Bernard’s trial, McClung had a brother who was in and out of prison — and there was a time in his own life when he could have ended up going down that same road. Both crimes took place in Texas in the 1990s — a time and place that saw the death penalty at its peak. He’s never at the front of anything,” the Killeen High School principal told the Statesman about Bernard. The plot is described in transcripts from the 2000 trial at the federal courthouse in Waco, although the sequence of events can be hard to follow. When they were done,” Bernard wrote, “I was left on the range alone.”, Liliana Segura[email protected]​theintercept.com@lilianasegura. — Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) December 10, 2020 Before he was executed, Vialva wrote a goodbye letter to Bernard. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Kim Kardashian West posted a series of tweets calling for Bernard’s life to be spared. In a declaration in 2016, she remembered how traumatized her family had been by his arrest. I heard the twinkling sound of the handcuffs and leg cuffs being placed on his ankles.”, Through the bars of his cell, Bernard wrote, he told Hall that he loved him. A person who wants to join a gang “will commit crimes, he will prey on the weak, he will commit assaults, he will traffic drugs, he will sanction hits, if necessary, and carry them out, in order to ‘make bones’ to be a part of that gang,” he said. He was convicted in 1999 with four other teenagers for murdering Todd and Stacie Bagley when he was just 18 years old. Its native Old English reflex was Beornheard, which was replaced by the French form Bernard that was … Bernard had been on death row for more than 10 years when his appellate lawyers sought out a forensic pathologist as part of his post-conviction litigation. To Bernard’s lawyers, the revelation was powerful proof that their client had been following the lead not only of Vialva, but also of Sparks. Kardashian and West have been married for six years and share four children together: North West, 7, Saint West, 5, Chicago West, 2, and Psalm West, 20 months. He has been married to Vanessa Britting since May 22, 2010. West Germanic Bernhard is composed from the two elements bern "bear" and hard "brave, hardy". He left the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2001 and was unaware that the Trump administration had carried out so many federal executions, including Vialva’s, this year. The announcement came on a Friday evening, as Owen was on the phone with his co-counsel. It was Vialva, after all, who’d shot the Bagleys at close range as they lay inside the trunk of their car. By evening, Vialva and the others had gotten back in touch with Bernard and Brown. They have two children. Unresolved questions about Bernard’s role in the crime were largely overshadowed by the harrowing descriptions of the scene. Every time someone spoke on the radio, or did a round on the range, every time that I heard something move … I thought … this is it … they are coming, but no one came and I dared to hope more,” he said. His parents divorced and Brandon was largely isolated, according to Daily Kos.