On Thursday (Dec. 10), Brandon Bernard was executed at the Federal Correctional Center in Terre Haute, Indiana. The 40-year-old man was originally facing life behind bars for disposing evidence of the 1999 murders of Todd and Stacie Bagley, but the Trump administration increased his punishment to a death sentence, making him the ninth execution by the federal government this year.
Ahead of his death, Kim Kardashian and many others pleaded for Bernard to get a stay of execution, but the Supreme Court rejected and proceeded to put him to death. Social media users are now comparing the treatment of Bernard — an accomplice in a double homicide — and Dylann Roof, the white man who fatally shot nine members of a Black congregation in Charleston, South Carolina.
“Dylan Roof murdered 9 Black people at a Charleston church,” one Twitter user wrote. “He was taken to Burger King after his arrest. He’s alive. Brandon Bernard was 18, didn’t know those he was with we’re going to kill a couple, didn’t pull the trigger, was convicted as ‘an accomplice.’ He was executed.”
Another person expressed similar sentiments, writing, “In the same world where white supremacist, Dylan Roof, is still allowed to breathe 5 years after the Charleston Church Massacre and subsequently offered Burger King, Brandon Bernard is being offered an execution w/ a side of sedation.”
Many accused the justice system of being racist, but some argued that the Roof and Bernard comparison wasn’t the best way to prove that because Roof was sentenced to death for his crime and will one day be executed as well.
“ Dylan Roof is trending because extremely low IQ leftists are claiming it’s racist that Brandon Bernard was executed, but Dylan Roof was not executed. Please note: Dylan Roof was sentenced to death and will be executed. Please do not embarrass yourself by making this comparison,” someone tweeted, adding that officers fed the Charleston shooter “because they had to.”
Other users called for the abolition of the death penalty.
“Dylan Roof trending. To underscore there are 2 systems of justice. 1 for Black people. 1 for white,” read one tweet. “It’s true. But Roof was also condemned to die & even if you think he should be murdered by the state, you cant just have death penalty for one person. Must abolish it for all.”
Look at the tweets comparing the prison system’s treatment of Roof and Bernard below.