Talk:Brandon Bernard

Misc.

As this is still a draft, and almost all one person's work, I'll comment here rather than editing for now. A few issues that I think need mentioning:

• The claim that one of the victims had smoke in her lungs, which was used as evidence that it was the fire that was the cause of death, not the gunshot.
• The jury: several news articles are making a point that it was "almost all white", and that this may have lead to bias in the judgement. Do we have any details on what the actual makeup was (i.e. what race were the other jurors)? Was it a unanimous verdict, and if not, was there any correlation with race? Iapetus (talk) 09:59, 11 December 2020 (UTC).

All death sentences have to be unanimous. Iamreallygoodatcheckers (talk) 04:54, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

The gang used Brandon Bernard's car and gun to commit the crime. During the crime, Brandon Bernard left to go buy the lighter fluid and came back. 72.182.34.140 (talk) 08:54, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

federal jurisdiction?

There shoud be some clarity as to why this was not a state matter. Simply kidnapping? Was a state line crossed?

Because the crime occurred at Fort Hood, which is classed as federal land and therefore belongs to the federal government, which is why he was tried in federal court and not by Texas. Inexpiable (talk) 00:25, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

Section on Vialva

Probably should be a section devoted to Vialva who was Bernard's accomplice and has also been executed. I will redirect pages referencing Vialva to this article. Inexpiable (talk) 00:27, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

Incorrect execution drug

The wrong medicament was listed. It originally said phentobarbital. I changed it to pentobarbital (no h). They are very similar barbiturates but pentobarbital is the drug used in federal executions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Debate chess (talk • contribs) 07:29, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

I changed it back to phenobarbital because thats the drug that's stated in the source (https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-race-and-ethnicity-prisons-killeen-13044e3f1ab9e0e140c57d8012b67abb) Iamreallygoodatcheckers (talk) 17:56, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

According to the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and New York Times, the drug used was pentobarbital. (No H)

(https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-carries-out-second-of-six-executions-set-during-biden-transition-11607663425) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/12/11/world-excecutions-brandon-bernard/) (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/24/us/federal-execution-christopher-vialva.html) According to the Justice Department’s website and Time Magazine, the drug used in federal executions is pentobarbital. (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-government-resume-capital-punishment-after-nearly-two-decade-lapse) (https://time.com/5636513/pentobarbital-executions-justice-department/) I’m new to Wikipedia. I apologize if I didn’t properly include hyperlinks in this discussion post. Debate chess (talk) 09:12, 13 December 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for the references. It does appear based on the references you provided that the current drug in pentobarbital and not phenobarbital. I will change it to pento. Iamreallygoodatcheckers (talk) 03:13, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

Neutrality Question

The “Execution and public outcry” section cites five people who thought the death sentence should be stayed or commuted. (Jackson, Kardashian, Dershowitz, Starr, and Sanders). For balance, should we include one person who spoke in favor of the sentence being carried out? (Such as Matt Walsh or Michael Knowles)? I’m not sure so I’m asking if anyone has input on this? Thank you Debate chess (talk) 09:40, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

I wouldn't see a problem in adding some proponents of his execution. However, most of the notable outcry was from people who were against his execution. We don't want undue weight. Iamreallygoodatcheckers (talk) 17:52, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

Detail on Bernard's ability to have children while in prison

Apparently Bernard has two daughters that were born since the crime. Please add some detail on this and his marriage, if there was one. How was he able to have kids while in prison? 49.237.19.145 (talk) 14:46, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

I was also curious about this. Can we add a section that says "family" or "adult life"? I'm not well versed on the norms of Wiki subheadings but feel it's important to have somewhere the fact that he had two daughters. Even if we can't speak to how he was able to father them, at least to acknowledge his family somewhere on the page. Todayishere (talk) 23:57, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

Do you have WP:Reliable sources for those claims? Some1 (talk) 00:30, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

Conflicting claims about Stacie Bagley's cause of death

The article states that "Stacie's autopsy report she died of smoke inhalation. She was medically dead at the time of the car being set on fire". Which is it?

Well, the Fifth Circuit established, uncontested by the defense, that "an autopsy later revealed that Stacie died from smoke inhalation". The first source cited agrees: "autopsy revealed Todd Bagley was killed by a gunshot wound, but Stacie Bagley's cause of death was smoke inhalation" (USA Today, citation 8). The ninth citation doesn't mention Bernard, while the tenth says: "The central question in the decision to sentence Bernard to death was whether Vialva’s gunshots or the fire set by Bernard killed the Bagleys. Trial evidence showed Todd Bagley likely died instantly. But a government expert said Stacie Bagley had soot in her airway, indicating smoke inhalation and not the gunshot killed her. Defense attorneys have said that assertion wasn’t proven."

However, the defense attorneys mentioned were not the ones litigating the original trial, but a recent team fighting for clemency. The finding that Stacie Bagley died of smoke inhalation stands as a matter of legal fact. There is no possibility that she was 'medically dead' when the car was set on fire, yet found by an autopsy to have died of smoke inhalation. I'll edit the article later to indicate that Bernard did indeed kill Stacie Bagley as found by the autopsy, undisputed by the original defense, affirmed through numerous appeals, and reported in reliable sources. Ardyr Ioris (talk) 06:58, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

I've removed the contradictory, unsupported, recently-added claim that she was medically dead when set on fire. It's one of several recent attempts by BB's supporters to greatly & falsely minimise his major, active role in committing the crimes for which he was convicted. Jim Michael (talk) 12:17, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

• Comment I have recently made an edit relaying both arguments that she died of smoke inhalation and the argument that she was medically dead. This is what is stated in RS. Iamreallygoodatcheckers (talk) 03:55, 17 November 2021 (UTC)