Federal Murderer Executed

by · Published · Updated

A man convicted of participating in the double-murder of a young Texas couple was executed by lethal injection at a federal penitentiary Thursday.  Paulina Smolinski and Clare Hymes of CBS News report that Brandon Bernard apologized for the murders before he died.   Facts presented in a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision indicate that in June of 1999, two members of a gang that Bernard belonged to kidnapped Todd and Stacie Bagley from a convenience store parking lot. After taking Stadie’s jewelry and the couple’s ATM cards, they forced them to drive to a bank where the kidnappers withdrew money from an ATM.   They then met up with Bernard and another gang member who had brought a can of gasoline.  The four then drove the couple to a remote federal preserve, forced them into the trunk before one of the group shot both victims with Bernard’s .40 caliber Glock.  Bernard then doused the car with gasoline and set it on fire.

Stacie, who had survived the shooting, died of smoke inhalation.  Police, responding to the fire, caught all four gang members at the scene.  In last minute appeals, Bernard’s attorneys argued that he should have received a life sentence because he did not shoot the victims, he was not a leader in the criminal gang he belonged to, and that he has been well behaved while in prison.  Todd Bagley’s mother thanked President Trump and Attorney General Barr for bringing her family closure.

Federal murderer Alfred Bourgeois is scheduled to be executed at a federal prison in Terre Haute today.  USA Today reports that  Bourgeois was found guilty and sentenced to death for the repeated sexual and physical abuse of his two-year-old daughter over most of her life.  In 2002 she died after he slammed her head against a windshield for tipping over her potty seat.   The gruesome details of the little girl’s life and death are provided in this 2005 Federal Appeals Court decision.  I doubt that there will be a candlelight vigil outside the prison protesting the execution of this creature.