Brandon Bernard executed, despite objections from jurors in his case

The federal government executed Brandon Bernard on Thursday, after the Supreme Court denied a stay of execution.

In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that Bernard made "troubling allegations that the government secured his death sentence by withholding exculpatory evidence and knowingly eliciting false testimony against him. Bernard has never had the opportunity to test the merits of those claims in court. Now he never will."

Earlier this year, President Trump resumed use of the federal death penalty, following a 17-year hiatus. Bernard, 40, was convicted in 2000 of the carjacking and murder of Todd and Stacie Bagley, a husband and wife visiting Fort Hood, Texas, from Iowa. After kidnapping the couple and putting them in the trunk of their car, gunman Christopher Vialva, then 19, shot the Bagleys at close range, and Bernard set the vehicle on fire. Vialva was executed on Sept. 24.

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Bernard was 18 at the time of the crime, and his attorney, Robert Owen, told Reuters that while he made "one terrible mistake," he "did not kill anyone, and he never stopped feeling shame and profound remorse for his actions." Bernard's lawyers conducted a probe of his trial, and said they found that prosecutors could have shown jurors evidence that Bernard was a low-level member of a youth gang and there was less of a chance that he would re-offend, Reuters reports.

Five jurors have since said they supported Bernard's appeal for clemency, believing he did not receive adequate legal representation during his trial. Several celebrities also rallied to his cause, including Kim Kardashian West, who petitioned Trump to spare Bernard's life. A witness to the execution said Bernard's last words were, "I'm sorry. That's the only words that I can say that completely capture how I feel now and how I felt that day."