The Washington Post - USA (2020-12-11)

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 A

CENSUS

Panel issues subpoena

to commerce secretary

The House Committee on
Oversight and Reform on
Thursday issued a subpoena to
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross
requiring him to produce by
Dec. 21 documents related to data
anomalies and delays associated
with the 2020 Census.
Committee Chairwoman
Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) said
Ross had repeatedly ignored
requests for information about
the census, which has been at the
center of political wrangling and
litigation during much of
President Trump’s tenure.
The administration has pushed
the Census Bureau to produce
state population totals in time for
the president to try to exclude
undocumented immigrants from
apportionment before he leaves
office.
“Your approach to Congress’
oversight responsibilities has
been abominable,” Maloney wrote
in a letter to Ross, adding, “You
may have little personal regard
for your own ignominious legacy
as Secretary of Commerce, but a
complete and accur ate census is
critical for the health and well-
being of hundreds of thousands of
American families in red states
and blue states alike.”
— Tara B ahrampour

MINNESOTA

3 charged with arson

during August unrest

Three men have been indicted
on federal arson charges in
connection with fires that were
set inside the Target corporate
headquarters building during
unrest that followed rumors of an
August police shooting in
downtown Minneapolis.
The unrest began after a Black
man who was a suspect in a
homicide fatally shot himself as
police were closing in. In the city

still reeling from the May 25

death of George Floyd, rumors of

a police shooting circulated and

activists and demonstrators went

downtown to protest.

Federal prosecutors

announced Thursday that Shador

Tommie Cortez Jackson, 24, of

Richfield; Victor Devon Edwards,

31, of St. Paul; and Leroy Lemonte

Perry Williams, 34, of

Minneapolis were each indicted

on one count of conspiracy to

commit arson.

According to allegations in the

indictment and court documents,

the three men went downtown

where dozens of others had

gathered Aug. 26. Court

documents say Jackson used a

construction sign to break a glass

door at the Target building and,

once inside, set a f ire on a counter

in a mailroom.

Court documents say that

Edwards later added liquid

accelerant to the fire, and that

Jackson tried to light a second fire

on top of cardboard boxes using a

lighter and ignitable liquid. They

ran outside, but Williams went

back in and tried to light a fire

inside the building entrance.

— Associated P ress

NEVADA

5 bicyclists are killed

i n crash with truck

Five bicyclists were killed and

three others injured in a crash

Thursday involving a b ox truck on

U.S. Highway 95 north of the

town of S earchlight, Nevada

Highway Patrol officials said.

Authorities said the truck driver,

who wasn’t believed to have been

impaired, remained on the scene

after the 9:40 a.m. crash.

Nevada Department of

Transportation spokesman Tony

Illia said the truck allegedly hit a

safety escort vehicle that was

following the group of about 20

bicyclists. They were on an

informal ride to celebrate one of

the bicyclist’s retirement, the Las

Vegas Review-Journal reported.

— Associated P ress

DIGEST

ANTONIO PEREZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Firefighters work to extinguish a blaze Thursday at a w arehouse in

Chicago. Larry Merritt, a Chicago Fire Department spokesman, said

hundreds of firefighters were called to b attle flames shooting through

the roof of Best Value Auto Body Supply Inc. The damage was

“extensive” and the building probably will be demolished, Merritt

said. The fire sent billows of smoke that could be seen for miles.

Politics & the Nation

BY MARK BERMAN

The Trump administration
Thursday executed Brandon Ber-
nard, one of five death sentences
the federal government hopes to
carry out before President-elect
Joe Biden takes office next month.
This schedule has spurred sig-
nificant pushback, with critics ar-
guing against carrying out a wave
of executions in the narrow win-
dow before Biden, who opposes
capital punishment, takes office.
Three of the executions are set for
the week before Biden’s inaugura-
tion Jan. 20.
Bernard’s case had drawn high-
profile condemnation, with Kim
Kardashian West, among others,
tweeting about his case and shar-
ing a petition calling for his death
sentence to be commuted to life in
prison.
On Thursday evening, the U.S.
Supreme Court rejected Bernard’s
stay request, clearing the way for
his execution to proceed. The
court’s three liberal justices — Ste-
phen G. Breyer, Elena Kagan and
Sonia Sotomayor — said they
would have granted the stay. An
hour later, officials said Bernard’s
execution had been carried out
and he was pronounced dead at
9:27 p.m. Bernard was the ninth
federal death-row inmate execut-
ed this year.
Bernard and Christopher Vial-
va, his co-defendant, were con-
victed of murder in 2000 for their
roles in the killing of two youth
ministers, Todd and Stacie Bagley,
the previous year.
Some of their associates asked
Todd Bagley for a ride, and after
he agreed, they put the couple into
the car’s trunk and drove them to
an isolated area on the Fort Hood,
Tex., military reservation, accord-
ing to court records.
Vialva shot each of them in the
head, and Bernard set the car on
fire; Todd Bagley was killed by the
gunshot, while Stacie Bagley by
smoke inhalation, the records
show. Bernard was 18 at the time.
Vialva was 19; he was executed by
the federal government in Sep-
tember.
Bernard’s attorneys argued
that his trial was flawed and em-
phasized that several jurors from
his case now supported him being
sentenced to life in prison rather

than death. They also described

Bernard as a model prisoner.

Robert C. Owen, an attorney for

Bernard, assailed the execution in

a statement Thursday night, say-

ing it was “a stain on America’s

criminal justice system.”

Owen said Bernard was put on

death row due to “egregious gov-

ernment misconduct in conceal-

ing evidence and misleading the

jury, which the courts refused to

remedy.”

In a dissent Thursday night,

Sotomayor wrote: “Bernard has

never had the opportunity to test

the merits of [his] claims in court.

Now he never will.”

Federal officials, in their own

court filings, defended the gov-

ernment’s prosecution and

stressed that Bernard participat-

ed in the crime. They also wrote

that jurors still voted to give Ber-

nard a death sentence despite

hearing testimony about his

“marginally lesser role” in the kill-

ings than Vialva.

In statements released by the

Bureau of Prisons after the execu-

tion, family and friends of the

Bagleys described the killings as a

“senseless act of unnecessary evil”

and thanked President Trump

and Attorney General William P.

Barr. They wrote that they “have

grieved for 21 years waiting for

justice to finally be served.”

Bernard’s last words included

an apology directed at the victims’

family, according to the media

pool report.

“I’m sorry,” he said, lifting his

head to look at the windows to

witness rooms. “That’s the only

words that I can say that com-

pletely capture how I feel now and

how I felt that day.”

Speaking to reporters shortly

after the execution, Todd Bagley’s

mother, Georgia, became emo-

tio nal about Bernard’s apology,

saying it helped heal her heart,

according to the pool report. “I

can very much say: I forgive

them,” she said.

The Justice Department has

pushed back at criticism of its

execution schedule, saying that

Barr is following the law in carry-

ing out death sentences, which

attorneys general of both parties

have sought over the years.

Federal officials plan Friday to

execute Alfred Bourgeois, who

killed his 2-year-old daughter and

was convicted in 2004. His attor-

neys say Bourgeois has an intel-

lectual disability and have asked

the Supreme Court to stay the

execution.

Last year, Barr announced that

the Justice Department would be-

gin carrying out executions again

using a new lethal-injection pro-

tocol. Before that, the federal gov-

ernment had not carried out any

since 2003.

Lethal injection remains the

primary method of execution in

the United States, though officials

have struggled to obtain the drugs

involved in recent years due to

opposition from pharmaceutical

firms.

Barr’s original plan to resume

executions late last year was scut-

tled by court challenges to the new

lethal-injection procedure, which

was eventually upheld. In July,

after the Supreme Court rejected

a volley of challenges, the Justice

Department carried out three exe-

cutions in four days, matching the

total number it had conducted

over the previous three decades.

The legal challenges to these

executions included opposition

based on the coronavirus pan-

demic, which has torn through

some prisons and jails. Some vic-

tims’ relatives opposed one execu-

tion, arguing they would have put

their lives at risk traveling to wit-

ness it, while spiritual advisers in

other cases made similar argu-

ments.

One of the executions original-

ly planned for this month was

delayed after attorneys for Lisa

Montgomery, who was set to be

executed, said they contracted the

coronavirus traveling to meet

with her. They asked for a delay,

and her execution has been

pushed back to January.

Authorities have acknowl-

edged that some people who went

to Terre Haute, Ind., where federal

executions are carried out, tested

positive for the coronavirus after

attending the most recent one.

[email protected]

Federal inmate is executed

BERNARD DEFENSE/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

Brandon Bernard, seen in an

undated photograph, was

executed Thursday. His case

had drawn wide attention.

4 more are scheduled to

be put to death as Trump

plan faces rising pushback

BY ROBERT BARNES

The Supreme Court ruled

unanimously Thursday that

three Muslim men may seek mon-

etary damages from the govern-

ment agents they say placed them

on a no-fly list because they

refused to become FBI inform-

ants.

The men filed a lawsuit in 2013

under the Religious Freedom

Restoration Act (RFRA), which

provides relief from government

actions that substantially burden

a person’s religious beliefs.

“The question here is whether

‘appropriate relief’ includes

claims for money damages

against government officials in

their individual capacities. We

hold that it does,” Justice Clar-

ence Thomas wrote for the 8-

court. Justice Amy Coney Barrett

was confirmed after the case was

argued in October and did not

take part in the decision.

Muhammad Tanvir, Jameel

A lgibhah and Naveed Shinwari

alleged that in separate incidents

they were asked to spy on their

friends and fellow congregants at

mosques in the New York area.

They refused and later discov-

ered that they were placed on the

no-fly list, a secretive government

list containing thousands of

names of those not allowed to

board airplanes because of sus-

pected terrorism ties.

“Federal agents put my clients

on the no-fly list because they

refused to spy on innocent co-re-

ligionists in violation of their

Islamic beliefs,” Ramzi Kassem, a

lawyer for the men, told the

justices when the case was heard

in October.

“My clients lost precious years

with loved ones, plus jobs and

educational opportunities.”

As their lawsuit progressed

toward a hearing, the men were

told that they were no longer on

the list. A federal judge said that

made their case moot. But a panel

of the U.S. Court of Appeals for

the 2nd Circuit disagreed, saying

the men could bring their claims

for damages under RFRA.

That law allows for “appropri-

ate relief” from the government

and defines government as “a

branch, department, agency, in-

strumentality, and official (or

other person acting under color

of law) of the United States.”

The government said that was

not meant to include monetary

damages against government of-

ficials in their personal capac-

ities.

But Thomas said Congress did

not specify that in enacting the

law in 1993.

“A damages remedy is not just

‘appropriate’ relief as viewed

through the lens of suits against

government employees,” he

wrote. “It is also the only form of

reli ef that can remedy some

RFRA violations. For certain inju-

ries, such as respondents’ wasted

plane tickets, effective relief con-

sists of damages, not an injunc-

tion.”

He said that if Congress, as a

policy matter, wanted to shield

government officials from per-

sonal liability, it was free to do so.

“But there are no constitutional

reasons why we must do so in its

stead,” he wrote.

He also noted that government

officials are entitled to assert a

qualified immunity defense

when sued in their individual

capacities, if they can show that

they did not violate clearly estab-

lished law.

The court has been protective

of individual rights under RFRA

in recent years; it often unites

conservative religious organiza-

tions and liberal civil rights

groups.

The Becket Fund for Religious

Liberty filed an amicus brief in

the case and said the ruling was

important because government

officials often try to get rid of

lawsuits by simply stopping the

alleged illegal behavior.

“We’re glad the Supreme Court

unanimously emphasized that

the government can’t expect to be

let off the hook by simply chang-

ing its tune at the last second,”

senior counsel Lori Windham

said.

The case is Tanzin v. Tanvir.

[email protected]

Abigail Hauslohner contributed to

this report.

Justices rule for men put on no-fly list

CHRIS HAWLEY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ramzi Kassem, seen in 2011, told the Supreme Court t hat “my

cli ents lost precious years with loved ones” as a result of the list.

Designation came after

3 Muslims refused to

become FBI informants

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