Brandon Bernard known as and emailed me day-after-day for the 2 months main as much as his execution. We spoke just a few hours earlier than his execution and a few of our final phrases have been spent discussing his final phrases. For the primary time, his optimism was gone. He additionally appeared hopeful the day earlier than as a result of he had heard that the Department of Justice’s pardon legal professional’s workplace he strongly recommended that his sentence be commuted to life imprisonment.
Brandon learn his Pardon Office speech to me earlier than presenting it, and the deep degree of regret he expressed made me cry. He was a special particular person from {the teenager} arrested greater than 20 years earlier. Until the top he did not suppose he could be executed as a result of he knew he had repented.
I began writing to loss of life row prisoners after studying Bryan Stevenson’s e book Jjust Mercy about an harmless man sentenced to loss of life row. Books usually change my course; I learn a book on intensive agriculture just a few years in the past and I have not eaten meat since. After studying Only MercyI’ve despatched postcards to a couple of dozen loss of life row inmates within the United States. When I began what my husband, household, and buddies universally think about a wierd pastime, I had no thought how rewarding and life-changing writing about loss of life row prisoners would turn out to be.
When we first began exchanging letters a 12 months in the past, I warned Brandon that I had one other pen pal on the Terre Haute Federal Penitentiary. In my expertise, inmates do not wish to write to somebody who has a number of pen buddies in the identical facility on account of professional privateness and safety considerations. Brandon’s instant response was, “Well, then that makes me one of many two luckiest males in Terre Haute.” To name your self fortunate after ending two decades of isolation 23 hours a day in a six-by-eight-foot cell was the primary of many gratitude classes Brandon taught me.
Brandon was 18 when he took half in a theft gone unsuitable. He had no historical past of violence. Brandon’s buddies carjacked a white couple, Todd and Stacie Bagley, youth ministers who have been innocently providing rides to supposedly needy kids. Later, Brandon joins the group solely to see Christopher Vialva, the crime ringleader, fatally shoot Todd and Stacie within the head at shut vary. The man who had simply shot two individuals within the head and nonetheless had the gun in his hand then ordered Brandon and three different youngsters to set hearth to the automobile with the couple’s our bodies inside. Brandon did as he was told.
At the trial, Brandon’s court-appointed attorney made no opening statementthat means he provided the jury no various perspective on the costs. Brandon was the one confederate who was not given the chance to plead responsible. The different accomplices declared themselves and have been sentenced to jail; two are at residence with their households now.
Brandon was falsely portrayed as a hardened, high-level gang member. Prosecutors withheld proof from their very own gang knowledgeable that the gang had a 13-level hierarchy Brandon at the bottom. Brandon by no means had the prospect to make clear his case in court docket: the story remained poorly instructed at trial twenty years earlier. Five of the 9 jurors survived he later made a public about-facestating that they might not have voted for the loss of life penalty if prosecutors had revealed all of the information through the trial and if Brandon’s legal professional had defended him competently.
In her dissent written hours earlier than Brandon’s execution, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the execution was taking place “Despite disturbing allegations that the federal government obtained his loss of life sentence by withholding exculpatory proof and knowingly acquiring false testimony in opposition to him. (He) by no means had the chance to check the validity of these claims in court docket. Now he by no means will.” Brandon turned the youngest particular person, primarily based on age on the time of the crime, to be executed by the federal authorities in practically 70 years. according to NBC News. He was 40 when he died.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Brandon liked his life, even in his restricted capability on loss of life row. He did not have a single disciplinary infraction in his a long time behind bars. This isn’t any imply feat, as loss of life row is sort of a jail inside a jail, with numerous oppressive guidelines and attendant frustrations.
Brandon primarily spent his time mentoring at-risk youth, studying, crocheting, and taking part in the guitar. Brandon was calmer and extra affected person than most individuals I’ve met; he spoke slowly and thoughtfully and was an avid listener. He by no means swore, and after I requested him if it was for non secular causes, he mentioned, “No, swearing simply appears too aggressive to me.”
Just a few days earlier than his execution, Brandon’s household visited him for the final time. After the go to, Brandon instructed me there was a gap within the glass. I naively mentioned, “Oh, so that you managed to carry palms.” He defined that it was an air gap to talk via, not large enough for his palms, “But,” he mentioned, “I might odor my mom.” In 20 years, together with his last days, Brandon was by no means allowed to bodily contact a liked one. Never having bodily contact is an inhumane day by day assault on the soul.
Brandon’s case suits the profile of loss of life row: His crime and trial came about in Texas, a state that has one third executed of the nationwide whole. Brandon’s jury consisted of 11 white jurors. Brandon was black, regardless of being within the high 13% of the American inhabitants constitute 42% of these sentenced to loss of life. The victims are white about 80% of loss of life penalty circumstances for homicide. A latest one Death Penalty Information Center Study discovered that in executions involving interracial murders since 1976, 295 black defendants have been executed for killing white victims, whereas solely 21 white defendants have been executed for killing black victims. Death row is riddled with racial bias and disproportionately homes black males who have committed an alleged crime in opposition to a white particular person. Equity can’t be achieved. Executions in our nation, whether or not by rope or needle, have at all times needed to do with race.
President Joe Biden as soon as He pledged to abolish the federal death penalty and supply incentives for states to do the identical. There is an easy various to authorities executions: maintaining individuals behind bars with out resorting to killing. Two-thirds of the countries they’ve abolished the loss of life penalty on the earth. Italy abolished the loss of life penalty in 1948; England in 1969. In the Netherlands the final execution came about in 1952; Australia in 1967. Since the loss of life penalty was abolished in 1976, Canada’s homicide rate has steadily declined. The United States is the only Western democracy to conduct executions. Russia additionally stopped executions in 1996. Our nation frequents dubious company with China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt and Pakistan. We are far behind in ending state-sponsored executions. It could be finished; final month Virginia became the 23rd state to abolish the death penalty. Brandon, along with his typical positivity, would say that now could be the time.
Friends sitting on loss of life row for years have taught me many classes: persistence, maintaining the dialog actual and significant, and appreciating what I’ve. The trouble of strolling my daughter to high school now entails holding her hand at visitors lights and rolling down the home windows so she will be able to really feel the air. Freedom.
I’ve realized that pure good and evil hardly ever exist in actuality, and that I can do higher than unambiguous righteousness. But most of all, I found that love is such a elementary want for all folks that it could actually create a bond between a “suburban white woman,” as a good friend from San Quentin calls me, and a former gang member from Los Angeles who gave up medicine. and the crime of his youth. I additionally understood that individuals can change profoundly over time.
During our day by day talks, I by no means had something to supply Brandon aside from my love and assist. He by no means requested me for something aside from friendship. Brandon was non secular, however since I’m not, I could not provide him prayers or discuss how heaven is a greater place. I might solely take heed to him helplessly and inform him that I really like him.
Brandon’s last words they have been his deep remorse for the victims’ households, his love for his family, and, true to his caring nature, he instructed the jail guards to not let his execution upset them. Our final phrases have been about what he would show on the stretcher to maintain calm. I instructed him to think about it was my arms holding him in place as a substitute of the straps and he promised he would. I used to be crying and instructed him I used to be sorry I could not save him. He mentioned I saved him with my love. And we mentioned goodbye.
Jennifer Wasserstein is an immigration lawyer and lives in Italy together with her husband and daughter.
This article initially appeared on HuffPost in April 2021.
