Kim Kardashian Urges Trump to Stop Brandon Bernard's Execution

Just hours before Brandon Bernard is due to be executed, Kim Kardashian West urged President Donald Trump to spare his life in a series of appeals posted to Twitter.

Bernard, 40, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the federal penitentiary at Terre Haute, Indiana, on Thursday. He was sentenced to death over his role in the 1999 murder of two youth ministers, Todd and Stacie Bagley, at Fort Hood in Texas.

In a last-ditch bid to save Bernard, the reality television star turned criminal justice reform activist took to Twitter to call on the president to grant him clemency.

"Brandon Bernard, a 40-year-old father is going to be executed tomorrow by our federal government," she tweeted on Wednesday.

"Having gotten to know Brandon, I am heartbroken about this execution. I'm calling on @realDonaldTrump to grant Brandon a commutation and allow him to live out his sentence in prison."

In another tweet, she added: "Most of the time executions happen, in our names, without a lot of attention given to them. This is unacceptable. For the next 24 hours I will be tweeting about Brandon and his case and why his life should be spared by @realDonaldTrump."

In another tweet, she listed the reasons why Bernard should not be executed—including noting that he was just 18 at the time of the crime, that he was not the one who shot the couple and that five jurors who condemned him to death now support a life sentence.

"He's spent decades in prison w/out a write up, helping at risk youth," she added.

She also said that if Bernard's execution goes ahead, he "will die having never been able to touch his children. All his visits with them have been behind glass, though this has not deterred him from being the best father he can be from prison."

Kardashian West also urged her followers to tweet Trump to urge him to halt Bernard's execution.

It's not the first time Kardashian West has brought attention to Bernard's plight. She first tweeted about his case in late November, describing the crime as "terrible," but noting that Bernard's role was "minor compared to the of the other teens involved, two of whom are home from prison now."

Those accomplices were under 18 at the time of the offense and ineligible for the federal death penalty. But Christopher Vialva, who shot the Bagleys, was executed in September.

The Department of Justice (DoJ), announcing Bernard's execution, said he and his accomplices had "brutally murdered" the couple after Todd Badley agreed to give some of them a ride.

"The abductors eventually parked on the Fort Hood military reservation, where Bernard and another accomplice doused the car with lighter fluid as the couple, still locked in the trunk, sang and prayed," the DoJ said.

Vialva shot the couple, killing Todd Bagley and knocking Stacie Bagley unconscious. "Bernard then lit the car on fire, killing Stacie through smoke inhalation," the DoJ said.

But Bernard's defenders argue that expert evidence about how he occupied the lowest rung of the gang involved in the crime was withheld by prosecutors during his trial and would have spared him from receiving a death verdict.

On Wednesday, they asked the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to halt the execution to pursue the claim. A group of almost two dozen current and former prosecutors filed a brief supporting the stay of execution, writing that "when the government cheats to obtain a conviction and a sentence of death, it undermines our entire system of justice."

Kardashian West, meanwhile, has had success advocating for inmates in the past.

In 2018, Trump commuted Alice Johnson's life sentence for a nonviolent drug crime shortly after meeting with Kardashian West. Earlier this year, Trump granted the woman a full pardon.

But it's not clear if her efforts will have the same impact this time.

The Trump administration has already executed eight inmates since resuming federal executions over the summer, ending a 17-year moratorium.

Five federal executions, including Bernard's, are planned to take place before President-elect Joe Biden, a death penalty opponent, takes office in January.

The White House has been contacted for comment.