Kim Kardashian is counting down the hours until the execution of prisoner Brandon Bernard, tweeting that she's been "crying all morning" after fighting to have his death penalty sentence commuted.
The reality TV star first mentioned 40-year-old Bernard to her 67.9 million Twitter followers late last month, insisting that his role in the 1999 kidnapping and murder of two youth ministers was "minor".
Kardashian said there were multiple reasons that Bernard should not have recieved the death penalty, including the fact he was 18 at the time, was not the shooter in the crime and the prosecutor and five jurors from the case now supported clemency.
When the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star learned that Bernard's execution was imminent, she tweeted at US President Donald Trump to allow him to live out his sentence in prison, and urged her followers to do the same.
"Brandon Bernard, a 40-year-old father is going to be executed tomorrow by our federal government. Having gotten to know Brandon, I am heartbroken about this execution," she wrote.
While Bernard did not pull the trigger of the gun that murdered the two victims of the crime, he did set a car on fire with them still inside after the shooting. According to Kardashian, Bernard did this to comply with his teenage accomplice Christopher Vialva, who allegedly ordered Bernard at gunpoint.
"The gunman then turned to Brandon, gun still in hand, and told him to light the car Todd and Stacie lay in on fire to destroy the evidence. Brandon believed both were dead, though Stacie was not, and was fearful for his own life, so he made the terrible decision to comply," Kardashian said.
Since an emergency motion to stay Bernard's execution was denied, Kardashian has been tweeting about the inmate constantly, counting down each hour until his death.
"Been crying all morning. Brandon Bernard will be executed in six hours," she tweeted.
"Brandon Bernard will be executed in five hours and all I can think about is his family and children and how they will feel when their loved one is gone."
"Two hours until Brandon Bernard is executed. My heart breaks for everyone involved, including the victims' families and in no way am I diminishing the loss their family has been through," she wrote in another tweet.
"I stand by what I have always said, I can empathise and feel pain for the victims and their families. Killing Brandon will not bring them back and I believe in my heart of hearts killing him isn't right. What Brandon did was wrong, but killing him won’t make things right."
Kardashian said she had gotten to know Bernard well recently, learning that he liked to crochet in prison and if he had more time before his execution, he would have liked to crochet her a blanket.
Kardashian also praised Bernard for his work with at risk youth, which he undertook while carrying out his sentence, having never gotten a write-up for bad behavior.
"Brandon will die having never been able to touch his children," Kardashian tweeted alongside a photo of Bernard being visited by one of 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."
Kardashian vowed she would tweet about Bernard for the 24 hours leading up to his "unacceptable" execution, determined that Trump should spare his life.
