The federal execution of a death row inmate went ahead on Thursday, the first of five before the end of Donald Trump's presidency.
Kim Kardashian West was among those urging clemency for Brandon Bernard.
Bernard, 40, was convicted of murder when aged 18 and is the youngest offender to be executed by the federal government in nearly 70 years.
If all five take place, Mr Trump will have overseen the most executions by a US president in more than a century.
It would bring to 13 the total of federal executions since July.
The executions break with an 130-year-old precedent of pausing executions amid a presidential transition. Joe Biden becomes president on 20 January.
Bernard directed his last words to the family of the couple he killed, according to the Associated Press news agency. "I'm sorry," he said. "That's the only words that I can say that completely capture how I feel now and how I felt that day."
The Brandon Bernard case
Bernard was pronounced dead at 21:27 local time (02:27 GMT) on Thursday, following a lethal injection at a penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
He was given the death penalty for his involvement in the murder of Todd and Stacie Bagley in June 1999.
He was one of five teenagers accused of robbing the pair and forcing them into the back of their car in Texas.
They were shot in the car by 19-year-old accomplice Christopher Vialva before Bernard set the car alight.
Defence lawyers say both of the Bagleys probably died before the car was set on fire.
An independent investigator hired by the defence said Stacie was "medically dead" before the fire.
However, government testimony during the trial claimed that although Todd Bagley died instantly, Stacie had soot in her airway, signalling that she had died from smoke inhalation and not the gunshot wound.
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Bernard's lawyers claim he feared what would happen to him if he refused to follow the orders of Vialva, who was executed in September.
Others involved in the incident were given prison sentences as they were under 18 and classed as juveniles.
Bernard's lawyers argued that he should be given life in prison without parole, as, throughout his time in jail, he has maintained a good record and worked with outreach programmes to stop people from getting involved in crime.
Who has advocated for him?
The federal prosecutor who defended Bernard's death sentence had called for Bernard to see out his sentence in prison.
In an opinion piece published in the Indianapolis Star, Angela Moore wrote: "Having learned so much since 2000 about the maturation of the human brain and having seen Brandon grow into a humble, remorseful adult fully capable of living peacefully in prison, how can we say he is among that tiny group of offenders who must be put to death?"
Five of the surviving nine jurors called for Mr Trump to commute Bernard's death sentence.
Tens of thousands of other people urged the president to grant Bernard clemency, including senators Richard J Durbin and Cory Brooker.
On Thursday, leading lawyers Allen Dershowitz and Ken Starr also joined his defence team.
Reality television star Kim Kardashian West sent numerous tweets about Bernard's case to her followers in the run-up to the execution, urging them to get behind the cause and raise awareness.
Kardashian West is studying to be a lawyer in California and has previously helped sway criminal cases.
In March she visited the White House with three women whose jail terms were cut by President Trump.
As President Donald Trump's days in the White House wane, his administration is racing through a string of federal executions.
Five executions are scheduled before President-elect Joe Biden's 20 January inauguration - breaking with an 130-year-old precedent of pausing executions amid a presidential transition.
And if all five take place, Mr Trump will be the country's most prolific execution president in more than a century, overseeing the executions of 13 death row inmates since July of this year.
The five executions are to begin this week, starting with convicted killers 40-year-old Brandon Bernard and 56-year-old Alfred Bourgeois. They are both scheduled to be put to death at a penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Kim Kardashian urges Trump to halt execution
Attorney General William Barr has said his justice department is simply upholding existing law. But critics have said the move is concerning, coming just weeks before Mr Biden - who has said he will seek to end the death penalty - takes office.
"This is really outside the norm, in a pretty extreme way," said Ngozi Ndulue, director of research at the non-partisan Death Penalty Information Center.
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Here's what you need to know about President Trump's last-minute rush of executions.
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What is current policy in the US?
Since the federal death penalty was reinstated by the US Supreme Court in 1988, executions carried out by the national or federal government in the US have remained rare.
Before Mr Trump took office, only three federal executions had taken place in this period.
All were carried out under Republican President George W Bush, and included inmate Timothy McVeigh, convicted of the Oklahoma City federal building bombing. Since 2003, there have been no federal executions at all.
US states have continued to execute inmates in state prisons, putting a combined 22 death row inmates to death last year. But state executions are also on a downward trend.
A growing number have moved to abolish capital punishment altogether, and the majority have either formally banned the practice or have not put any inmates to death in more than a decade.
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Popular opinion, too, has shifted away from capital punishment. A November 2019 Gallup poll found that 60% of Americans supported life in prison over the death penalty for the first time since the survey began more than 30 years ago.
"Public support for the death penalty is at a decades-long low," Ms Ndulue said.
Further problems have emerged with the methods of execution, sourcing drugs used for lethal injections, and the costs of decades-long court battles and appeals.
What did the Trump administration do?
In July 2019, Mr Barr announced the scheduled executions of five death row prisoners, despite prevailing practices and public opinion.
"Congress has expressly authorised the death penalty," the country's top legal official said in a statement at the time. "The justice department upholds the rule of law - and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system."
The selected inmates had been convicted of murdering or raping children and the elderly, Mr Barr said.
The move drew fierce criticism from top Democrats and human rights groups.
"We feel [the death penalty] is an unconstitutionally arbitrary punishment that should have been abolished decades ago," said Lisa Cylar Barrett, director of policy at the NCAAP Legal Defense Fund.
And the particular selection of inmates fuelled charges that the decision was politically motivated.
The first set of executions this summer - during a wave of anti-racism protests and demonstrations - were all of white men. Now, four of the five prisoners scheduled to be put to death are African American.
Ms Ndulue said she didn't think it was "coincidental" that no black prisoners were scheduled for execution during a period of "enhanced awareness of the racial disparities around the federal death penalty".
Research suggests the death penalty has been enforced differently according to race.
"One of the most robust findings of study after study, in jurisdictions across the country, is that the race of your victim is a serious factor in determining whether or not you will have the death penalty," Ms Ndulue said.
What is happening now?
If the executions of Brandon Bernard and Alfred Bourgeois go ahead as scheduled the 10 inmates executed in 2020 will bring a single-year total unmatched in modern history.
"We'd have to go back to 1896 to find another year where there were 10 or more executions," Ms Ndulue said.
The Trump administration has also chosen to carry out federal executions in the midst of a political transition, with a lame-duck president, for the first time in more than a century.
Incumbent presidents have typically deferred to their successors, allowing presidents-elect to set the course.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Mr Barr defended the post-election executions, and said he would likely schedule more before he leaves the justice department.
"I think the way to stop the death penalty is to repeal the death penalty," he said. "But if you ask juries to impose it, then it should be carried out."
But it is a controversial choice, especially as the incoming Biden administration has said it will work to end the death penalty.
The first scheduled execution, of Bernard, has drawn particular attention. Convicted of murder and kidnapping in 1999, Bernard was 18 years old at the time of his offense, and would be the youngest offender executed by the federal government in nearly 70 years.
Five of the nine surviving jurors in the case, as well as the US attorney who defended the death sentence on appeal, have publicly called for his execution to be stopped.
Kim Kardashian has also weighed in, making a direct appeal to Mr Trump on Twitter.
https://jibenksmadav.medium.com/the-federal-execution-of-a-death-row-inmate-went-ahead-on-thursday-the-first-of-five-before-the-d80563756367
https://www.guest-articles.com/news/brandon-bernard-executed-in-trumps-final-days-11-12-2020
Death row inmate Brandon Bernard has been executed in Indiana after last-minute clemency pleas were rejected by the US Supreme Court.
Bernard, 40, was convicted of murder in 1999 when he was a teenager, and is the youngest offender to be executed by the federal government in nearly 70 years.
Bernard told the family of the couple he killed he was sorry, before dying by lethal injection on Thursday.
Four more executions are planned before the end of Donald Trump's presidency.
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In Trump’s final days, a rush of federal executions
US executes federal inmate for 1994 murder
If all five take place, Mr Trump will have overseen the most executions by a US president in more than a century. It would bring to 13 the total of federal executions since July.
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They break with an 130-year-old precedent of pausing executions amid a presidential transition. Joe Biden becomes president on 20 January.
Condemned man's last words
Bernard was pronounced dead at 21:27 local time on Thursday (02:27 GMT Friday) at a penitentiary in the city of Terre Haute.
Before that he directed his last words to the victims' family, speaking calmly for more than three minutes.
"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 said, according to the Associated Press.
The execution was delayed for more than two hours after Bernard's lawyers asked in vain for the Supreme Court to halt it.
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What was Bernard convicted of?
He was given the death penalty for his involvement in the murder of Todd and Stacie Bagley in June 1999.
He was one of five teenagers accused of robbing the pair and forcing them into the boot of their car in Texas.
They were shot as they lay in the boot by 19-year-old accomplice Christopher Vialva before Bernard set the car alight.
Defence lawyers say both of the Bagleys probably died before the car was set on fire, and an independent investigator hired by the defence said Stacie had been "medically dead" before the fire.
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However, government testimony during the trial said that although Todd Bagley had died instantly, Stacie had had soot in her airway, signalling that she had died from smoke inhalation and not the gunshot wound.
Bernard's lawyers say he feared what would happen to him if he refused to follow the orders of Vialva, who was executed in September.
Others involved in the incident were given prison sentences as they were under 18 and classed as juveniles.
Bernard's lawyers argued that he should be given life in prison without parole, as, throughout his time in jail, he maintained a good record and worked with outreach programmes to stop people from getting involved in crime.
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Who advocated for him?
The federal prosecutor who defended Bernard's death sentence had called for Bernard to see out his sentence in prison.
In an opinion piece published in the Indianapolis Star, Angela Moore wrote: "Having learned so much since 2000 about the maturation of the human brain and having seen Brandon grow into a humble, remorseful adult fully capable of living peacefully in prison, how can we say he is among that tiny group of offenders who must be put to death?"
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Five of the surviving nine jurors called for Mr Trump to commute Bernard's death sentence.
Tens of thousands of other people urged the president to grant Bernard clemency, including senators Richard J Durbin and Cory Brooker.
On Thursday, leading lawyers Allen Dershowitz and Ken Starr also joined his defence team.
Reality television star Kim Kardashian West sent numerous tweets about Bernard's case to her followers in the run-up to the execution, urging them to get behind the cause and raise awareness.
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How have the victims' families reacted?
The families of Todd and Stacie Bagley both expressed gratitude to President Trump, Attorney General William Barr and other officials.
Todd Bagley's family said it had been "very difficult" to wait 21 years for the sentence imposed "on those who cruelly participated in the destruction of our children, to be finally completed".
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"The lives of family and friends were shattered and we all have grieved for 21 years waiting for justice to finally be served," the statement said.
"Thank you to all who were involved in this process of getting justice for Todd and Stacie."
Stacie Bagley's family said their lives had been changed forever by the murders. They said Stacie still had the chance of survival until the car was set on fire.
"God will forgive us of our sins, but the consequences of our sin will always play out," the statement read.
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What did the Trump administration do?
In July 2019, Mr Barr announced the scheduled executions of five death row prisoners, despite prevailing practices and public opinion.
"Congress has expressly authorised the death penalty," the country's top legal official said in a statement at the time. "The justice department upholds the rule of law - and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system."
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The selected inmates had been convicted of murdering or raping children and the elderly, Mr Barr said.
The move drew fierce criticism from top Democrats and human rights groups.
"We feel [the death penalty] is an unconstitutionally arbitrary punishment that should have been abolished decades ago," said Lisa Cylar Barrett, director of policy at the NCAAP Legal Defense Fund.
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And the particular selection of inmates fuelled charges that the decision was politically motivated.
The first set of executions this summer - during a wave of anti-racism protests and demonstrations - were all of white men. Now, four of the five prisoners scheduled to be put to death are African American.
Ms Ndulue said she didn't think it was "coincidental" that no black prisoners were scheduled for execution during a period of "enhanced awareness of the racial disparities around the federal death penalty".
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Research suggests the death penalty has been enforced differently according to race.
"One of the most robust findings of study after study, in jurisdictions across the country, is that the race of your victim is a serious factor in determining whether or not you will have the death penalty," Ms Ndulue said.
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What is happening now?
If the executions of Brandon Bernard and Alfred Bourgeois go ahead as scheduled the 10 inmates executed in 2020 will bring a single-year total unmatched in modern history.
"We'd have to go back to 1896 to find another year where there were 10 or more executions," Ms Ndulue said.
The Trump administration has also chosen to carry out federal executions in the midst of a political transition, with a lame-duck president, for the first time in more than a century.
Incumbent presidents have typically deferred to their successors, allowing presidents-elect to set the course.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Mr Barr defended the post-election executions, and said he would likely schedule more before he leaves the justice department.
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"I think the way to stop the death penalty is to repeal the death penalty," he said. "But if you ask juries to impose it, then it should be carried out."
But it is a controversial choice, especially as the incoming Biden administration has said it will work to end the death penalty.
The first scheduled execution, of Bernard, has drawn particular attention. Convicted of murder and kidnapping in 1999, Bernard was 18 years old at the time of his offense, and would be the youngest offender executed by the federal government in nearly 70 years.
Five of the nine surviving jurors in the case, as well as the US attorney who defended the death sentence on appeal, have publicly called for his execution to be stopped.
Kim Kardashian has also weighed in, making a direct appeal to Mr Trump on Twitter.
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