Brandon Bernard was executed late on Thursday night despite a frantic lobbying effort from celebrities, Trump-friendly lawyers and the prosecutor who jailed him.
Federal inmate Brandon Bernard was executed at 9:27 p.m. on Thursday, despite a last-ditch effort by advocates, celebrities, the prosecutor who jailed him, and at least one Trumpworld luminary to convince the president to spare his life.
Bernard spoke his last words to the families of his victims, according to the Associated Press: “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.”
In a statement released after Bernard’s death, both victims’ families thanked Donald Trump, Attorney General William Barr, and the Justice Department for pushing the execution forward.
“Without this process, my family and I would not have had the closure needed to move on in life,” wrote Georgia Bagley. She told reporters at the scene, “I can very much say: I forgive them.”
The execution of the 40-year-old by lethal injection at a federal facility in Indiana was the ninth federal execution under President Donald Trump’s watch. But it was notable, in part, because of how it pitted him against a cadre of allies he had nurtured during his time in office.
Attorneys Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr—both veterans of Trump’s legal defense during the impeachment trial this year—had joined Bernard’s legal team in the last few days, petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution. Kim Kardashian, the socialite entrepreneur who had worked with Trump on clemency issues before, was one of the most outspoken advocates arguing for a reprieve. The court denied a stay of execution hours before Bernard was put to death.
“Tonight, we who love Brandon Bernard—and we are many—are full of righteous anger and deep sadness at the actions of the federal government in taking his life. Brandon’s life mattered,” Bernard’s attorney Robert Owens said in a statement to The Daily Beast.
#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. pic.twitter.com/18GugdtuOs
That Trump wasn’t persuaded by those pleas not only showed the limitations of those prior relationships but also the firmness of the president’s determination to execute a number of federal inmates before his term ends in January.
This past summer, the Supreme Court allowed the Justice Department to restart federal executions after a 17-year hiatus. In subsequent months, Attorney General William Barr and the DOJ press office publicized Bernard’s impending execution, describing the “especially heinous” crime and the inmate’s involvement in “brutally murder[ing] two youth ministers, Todd and Stacie Bagley, on a military reservation in 1999.”
Bernard, who was 18 at the time, and four teenage friends kidnapped the Bagleys with the intent to rob them—but one of the teens, Christopher Vialva, shot them in the head instead. Bernard then lit the couple’s car on fire with them in the trunk. A medical examiner testified that Stacie Bagley was still alive after she was shot but died from smoke inhalation, a finding that Bernard’s allies dispute. (Vialva was put to death earlier this year.)
“Brandon made one terrible mistake at age 18,” Owens said. “He spent the rest of his life trying to show, as he put it, that he ‘was not that person.’”
As Bernard’s execution date neared, his allies ramped up a public and behind-the-scenes campaign to appeal to Trump, as well as to the White House counsel’s office and other top officials, to intervene. While it was unclear for a while if Trump was even aware of the case, by the day of the scheduled execution, knowledgeable sources said he’d become familiar with the Bernard situation with multiple conversations on the details of the case and the murders.
Within just hours of the planned execution, multiple individuals in and out of the broader Trump orbit who were sympathetic to Bernard told The Daily Beast that it appeared the president had arrived at his final decision, and that it would not be to their liking.
In the end, Trump found the push for clemency unpersuasive. According to two people with knowledge of the situation, Trump seemed particularly horrified by descriptions of the robbery and brutal killings of the two youth ministers, and that by that point, there was “no changing his mind,” one of the people said.
As the execution was underway, President Trump was tweeting about “the Fake News Media, the FBI and the DOJ,” and the Biden family and falsely claiming that he won the 2020 election that he clearly lost.
A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.
The president’s decision to dismiss calls for clemency fits into a broader worldview he holds about the moral merits of capital punishment. Several criminal-justice reform advocates have described the push to conduct federal executions before President-elect Joe Biden’s promise to halt them as Barr and Trump’s final “killing spree.”
His appetite for it is more profound, it appears, than his desire to earn plaudits of some key figures in and around his orbit.
Among the senior staff in the West Wing who’ve been aware of the case and of advocates’ entreaties in recent days is the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump, though it’s unclear the extent to which she discussed it with the president, if at all, the sources said.
Bernard’s allies, among them Kardashian, argued that the prisoner was a reformed man, with an unblemished 20-year record in prison, who had tried to counsel young and troubled people not to go down the same path he did as a teenager.
“The tragedy is that they are executing a very different man than the young man who committed these crimes 22 years ago,” Dershowitz said in a brief interview on Thursday afternoon.
Five of nine surviving jurors from Bernard’s trial came forward to say that they didn’t think the punishment fit the crime. And Angela Moore, a former federal prosecutor who defended Bernard’s death sentence on appeal, wrote an op-ed last month titled, “I helped put Brandon Bernard on federal death row. I now think he should live.” Advocates and Bernard’s legal team said prosecutors withheld evidence of his low rank in the local gang involved in slayings, likely proving he had to follow orders to burn the car—evidence that could have spared him a death sentence.
His family had also pleaded for clemency, stating that a life sentence would be better than death.
“I have never been able to hug my dad, but mentally and emotionally he is there for me as much as possible,” Taneah Scott, his daughter, said in a statement. “It might not seem like much of a relationship, but it is the best one I have and it is important to me.”
U.S. District Court Judge James Sweeney rejected a request to halt the execution, ruling that evidence presented to jurors suggesting there was no gang hierarchy wasn’t compelling enough to challenge the jurors’ conviction.
“Rather than taking into consideration hierarchy in general, the sentence reflects the actual conduct in this case,” Sweeney wrote.
Following Vialva’s execution in September, Todd Bagley’s mother, Georgia, released a statement which read, “I believe when someone deliberately takes the life of another, they suffer the consequences for their actions.”
Just before the execution on Thursday night, Moore, the former prosecutor, told The Daily Beast: “I want to say that the system has failed Brandon. I failed. The rule of law and the judiciary has failed. Our government is committing legal murder in retribution of murder.”
A planetary conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn will be the closest to Earth since medieval times.
Just in time for the holidays, December 2020 is set to be a particularly bright dark night as two planets move closer together for the first time in hundreds of years.
NBC News notes that the cosmic occurrence, known as The Great Conjunction of 2020, will light up the darkest day of the year when Jupiter and Saturn appear close together on the winter solstice.
Astronomers have referred to the occurrence as the “Christmas Star,” a term that stems from the Christian Bible’s Star of Bethlehem. Some believe that the Star of Bethlehem could have been a planetary conjunction between Venus and Jupiter about 2,000 years ago.
While Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions occur every two decades, the last one happened close to the sun, making it difficult to see. The forthcoming 2020 conjunction will be the closest to Earth since 1623, and closest observable since 1226.
This conjunction won’t occur this visibly again until March 15, 2080.
Jupiter is brighter than any star in our solar system, and Saturn is about as bright as the brightest stars.
Their orbits are distinctly different; Jupiter takes nearly 12 years to rotate around the sun, and Saturn takes an even longer 30 years. The conjunction occurs when these two planets overlap.
To get the best spot to view the planetary event might be difficult for some locations. Astrophysicist Pat Hartigan noted that seeking out a good spot along the horizon will be a viewer’s best bet to see the conjunction.
Džej Ramadanovski sahranjen je danas u Aleji zaslužnih građana na Novom groblju u Beogradu po islamskim običajima.
Iako je slavio Svetu Petku, slavu koju je preuzeo od bivše supruge Nade, i redovno odlazio u crkvu na Kalemegdanu, on veru nije promenio, iako je to želeo. O tome je pričao pre deset godina za Skandal:
– Rođen sam u mešovitoj porodici. Pošto mi je otac musliman, a majka je bila hrišcanka, ja sam nasledio očevu veru. Rastao sam na ulici i nisam bio u mogućnosti da razmišljam o tome da li ću nekom reći da sam katolik, pravoslavac ili musliman. Jednostavno, to mi nije bilo tako važno, ali kako su godine prolazile, postajao sam sve više pobožan.
Džej je tada istakao da mu je žao što zbog vere nije mogao da kumuje prijateljima:
– Često su me moji dragi prijatelji zvali da im budem kum, kako na venčanjima, tako i na krštenjima, a ja sam morao da ih odbijem jer nisam kršten. To bi me svaki put veoma ražalostilo, jer neke od njih volim kao da su mi rođena braća. Inače, veoma sam pobožan i redovno odlazim u crkvu Svete Petke, gde palim sveće za svoje najbliže. Jedno vreme čak sam u nju išao svaki dan, dok sam u džamiji bio svega nekoliko puta.
Pevaču se upravo zbog prijatelja javila želja da postane pravoslavac.
– Voleo bih da stvari postavim tako da kada me neko sledeći put pozove da mu kumujem, to mogu da prihvatim bez ikakvih problema. U suštini, još pre nekoliko godina rešio sam da ništa ne menjam pod stare dane, ali ću po pitanju vere verovatno napraviti izuzetak. Ponekad u šali kažem kako to ponavljam već godinama, pa se može desiti i da umrem ovako kako sam rođen. Nije važno kom se Bogu moliš ako u njega i u ono što radiš iskreno veruješ, ako su ti srce i duša čisti kao suza – pričao je Ramadanovski.
Acko Nezirović otkriva: Želeo je da ga hodža okupa
Džejev prijatelj Acko Nezirović kaže da će se sve želje njegovog prijatelja ispuniti:
– Njegovi otac i deda su sahranjeni po islamu. Govorio je: “Želim da me hodža okupa i da sve bude kako nalaže islam.” Našim prijateljima je to govorio. Tražio je da mu sviraju violina i tamburica, da bude muzike. Pričao je i da obavezno popijemo rakiju za njegovu dušu, jer je obožavao da pije. A opet, sa druge strane, slavio je Svetu Petku, jer je tu slavu preuzeo od svoje bivše supruge Nade.
SYDNEY (Kyodo) — Australia has abandoned trials of a locally developed coronavirus vaccine after several test subjects returned false positive results for HIV tests, vaccine developers said Friday.
The vaccine, which was being developed by the University of Queensland and biotech company CSL, did not cause any test participants to contract the autoimmune disease, but its trial was ended to preserve public confidence in new vaccines.
“Trial participants were fully informed of the possibility of a partial immune response…but it was unexpected that the levels induced would interfere with certain HIV tests,” a joint statement from the developers said.
Scientists said that while it would be possible to re-engineer the now-scrapped vaccine, it would take another 12 months, which, in the context of other vaccines already being rolled out, would be a considerable amount of time.
“While this is a tough decision to take, the urgent need for a vaccine has to be everyone’s priority,” said University of Queensland professor and vaccine co-lead Paul Young.
Speaking at a press conference in Canberra, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government would secure additional supplies of other vaccines to ensure provision for the nation of roughly 25 million.
Australia has secured over 140 million vaccine units through a combination of deals between with AstraZeneca, Novavax and Pfizer, which has recently rolled out its vaccine in Britain.
According to Health Minister Greg Hunt, Australia has one of the highest ratios of vaccine purchases and availability to population in the world.
Following strict lockdown measures and bans on international travel during the early stages of the pandemic, Australia has contained the virus’s spread, with 28,000 total confirmed cases and 908 deaths.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday there was a “strong possibility” that a trade deal with the European Union would not be reached.
Johnson said it was looking increasingly unlikely that there would be an agreement before Dec. 31, when the U.K. is set to stop adhering to EU trade rules, the BBC reported.
The U.K. officially left the EU on Jan. 31 but was allotted an 11-month transition period to address issues like trade rules.ADVERTISEMENT
Talks between the U.K. and the EU restarted last week as a final attempt to reach an agreement. However, both sides have said they remain far apart on several issues.
In a joint statement released Saturday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Johnson said although progress had been made, three critical issues prevented a deal from being reached: “level playing field, governance and fisheries.”
“Now is the time for the public and for businesses to get ready for January the first. Because believe me, there’s going to be change either way,” Johnson said in an address regarding the progress of the agreement.
Johnson met with von der Leyen on Wednesday in Brussels, where they reportedly made little progress. Johnson said he was willing to travel to Paris and Berlin if necessary to finalize a deal, according to the BBC.
“I do think that we need to be very very clear there’s now a strong possibility, strong possibility that we will have a solution that’s much more like an Australian relationship with the EU than a Canadian relationship with the EU. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing,” he said.
If no trade deal is reached, road connections will still operate and access to fishing waters may continue for up to year. However, border checks and taxes would be introduced on goods traveling between the U.K. and the EU.
NA SAHRANU preminulog pevača Džeja pristigli su violinisti iz cele Srbije.
Prisutan je Kolektov orkestar iz Novog Sada sa osam muzičara. Violinisti iz Obrenovca, Ripnja, Ljiga, iz Marinkove bare. Svi su se danas našli na Novom groblju u Beogradu kako bi pesmom ispratili velikana srpske folk scene.
Kako kažu, njih je organizovao Džejev dugogodišnji prijatelj Rule. Oni će na sahrani svirati najtužniju Džejevu pesmu “Nedelja” iz G mola.
Kažu da im je čast što sviraju i da tu pesmu znaju celog života.
– Tu pesmu znamo ceo život, oduvek je sviramo – rekao je Perica Vasić.
Džej Ramadanovski biće sahranjen danas u Aleji zaslužnih građana na Novom groblju u Beogradu, a porodica se oko 13 sati skupila u kapeli, gde primaju saučešća.
Džej Ramadanovski – sahrana
Porodica ne može da sakrije tugu i bol, a prijatelji i kolege okupljaju se kako bi izjavili saučešće.
Od Džejevih kolega, među prvima su na groblje stigli Đani i Mina Kostić.
Nešto malo kasnije pristigle su i kolege poput Dragana Kojića Kebe, Zoran Jagodić Rule, Ivana Dudić, Acko Nezirović.
Ko je još od prisutnih bio, pogledajte u galeriji ispod.1/11Džej Ramadanovski – sahrana
Džej Ramadanovski biće sahranjen danas u Aleji zaslužnih građana na Novom groblju u Beogradu, a porodica se oko 13 sati skupila u kapeli, gde primaju saučešća.
Džej Ramadanovski – sahrana
U kapeli jedna do druge stoje Džejeva bivša supruga Nada i Andrijana, žena sa kojom je pevač živeo sve do smrti.
Pored njih su i Džejeve ćerke Marija i Ana, kao i zet Adil Maksutović.
Džej Ramadanovski – sahrana
Porodica ne može da sakrije tugu i bol, a prijatelji i kolege okupljaju se kako bi izjavili saučešće.
Džej Ramadanovski – sahrana
Od Džejevih kolega, među prvima su na groblje stigli Đani i Mina Kostić.
Danas će se na Novom groblju u Beogradu održati sahrana Džeju Ramadanovskom, koji je preminuo u nedelju 6. decembra.
Džej će biti sahranjen u Aleji zaslužnih građana, pored nedavno preminulog glumca Ivana Bekjareva.
FOTO: PINK.RS/N. VUJČIĆ
FOTO: PINK.RS/N. VUJČIĆ
Sve je spremno za opelo i sahranu koja će se održati u 14.30 časova, a na groblju će se okupiti njegovi prijatelji, kolege i članovi porodice.
FOTO: PINK.RS/N. VUJČIĆ
Podsetimo, Džej Ramadanovski, legenda narodne muzike, preminuo je u nedelju, 6. decembra u 56. godini od srca. Iza sebe je ostavio dve ćerke Anu i Mariju, bivšu suprugu Nadu, mnogobrojne kolege, prijatelje, ali i vanvremenske hitove kroz koje će ziveti zauvek.
