Executions increase in the last day of US President Donald Trump's term in office.
Several celebrities have campaigned for an execution to be stopped - without success.
Federal
executions
were reintroduced in July 2019.
Since then,
10 people have been executed
at the US federal level
.
Prominent voices are being raised
against a
death sentence
on Thursday.
Washington DC -
Donald Trump
is known as an ardent supporter of the death penalty.
According to the
Death Penalty Information Center
,
the
Trump administration
wants to
carry out three more death sentences
before his successor
Joe Biden takes
office
.
The case of
Brandon Bernard
shows how consistently the death sentences are implemented.
Donald Trump reintroduced death sentences on federal level
Since 2003, the
execution of death sentences has been suspended at the federal level
.
US Attorney General
William Barr
announced last year
the resumption of executions at the federal level.
After a long legal struggle, a
death sentence was carried out
on this basis
for the first time in July 2019
.
Since then,
10 people
have been executed at the federal level.
In the last few days, the case of
Brandon Bernard has received
special media attention.
Celebrities like the American influencer
Kim Kardashian
, who has campaigned for those sentenced to death in the past, have vehemently opposed the 40-year-old's execution.
Half a million people have signed a petition asking
that the execution of Bernard be suspended
.
Kardashian and the supporters argued, among other things, that
Bernard
was too
young
at the time of the crime
and that his Gehrin was not yet properly developed.
Bernard
was
sentenced to death
in the state of Texas in 1999 for involvement in a
double
homicide.
His attorney, Robert C. Owen, stated that Bernard made "a terrible mistake at the age of 18".
Since then he has "never ceased to feel shame and deep remorse for his actions".
But in the end, all the
pleas
and
appeals
could not prevent Bernard from being
executed
with
lethal injection
on Thursday in a detention center in Terre Haute, Indiana
.
If executed tomorrow, Brandon 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.
pic.twitter.com/aMPBr1As1w
- Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) December 10, 2020
If all outstanding
death sentences were
carried out,
more people would have been executed
under
Donald Trump
than under any other US president.
Trump is
also breaking
the 130-year tradition that no new death sentences are carried out during the transition from one administration to the next.