Teaneck Activists Host Brandon Bernard, Casey Goodson Jr. Vigil

TEANECK, NJ — "A week of injustice. A week of pain."

Those were the words that headlined a flyer from the activist group BLMxTeaneck, who will host a vigil at 7 p.m. Saturday memorializing Casey Goodson Jr. and Brandon Bernard.

The vigil will be hosted on the steps of Teaneck town hall, the same place activists have gathered throughout the year in protest and mourning of the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and more.

Casey Goodson Jr., 23, of Columbus was shot by Franklin County, Ohio Sheriff's Deputy Jason Meade on Friday, Dec. 4. A preliminary autopsy released by Franklin County Coroner Dr. Anahi Ortiz found that Goodson died from multiple gunshot wounds to his torso.

An autopsy was performed Dec. 8, according to a news release from Ortiz's offce.

"Based on findings from the autopsy and medical death investigation, manner of death is homicide," the release read.

A lawyer for Meade said Goodson pointed a gun at him while he was conducting a search as part of a U.S. Marshals Service Task Force, according to NPR. However, Goodson was not a subject of any investigation, nor a person of interest of that search.

Family members paint of much different picture of events, saying Goodson was carrying a bag of Subway sandwiches into his home when he was shot three times in the back in front of his family.

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown tweeted in support of the family, saying Goodson "should be alive today.

According to a news release from Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin, the department is conducting an internal review after it was reported that officers at the scene referred to Goodson's mother as a "b****" and pointed a gun at his uncle, who was holding his three-year-old daughter.

"If one of my deputies used such language at the scene of any tragedy, it would be unacceptable and unbecoming of a law enforcement officer," Baldwin said, in a statement.

Brandon Bernard, 40, was executed in a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana on Thursday night, sparking calls to "abolish the death penalty" from politicians, celebrities and activists, including Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr.

According to Patch news partner The Texas Tribune, Bernard was sentenced to death at 18-years-old for his role in a 1999 carjacking and murder of an Iowa couple.

READ MORE: In Rush Of Federal Executions, Brandon Bernard Was executed For Texas murder

In recent appeals to the courts, Bernard's attorneys pointed to 2018 findings that prosecutors withheld evidence in the original court proceeds, and that five of nine juror from his trial no longer agree with their sentencing decision at the time.

The courts rejected that argument, the Tribune reports, but U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissenting opinion to that decision:

"Today, the Court allows the Federal Government to execute Brandon Bernard, despite Bernard’s 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. I would grant Bernard’s petition for a writ of certiorari and application for a stay to ensure his claims are given proper consideration before he is put to death."

Teaneck activists joined the chorus of voices speaking in support of Bernard's appeals, and in sadness at their rejection, and eventual ending.

"Unfortunately, we can't promise justice for Brandon. The 'justice' system has run its callous, brutal course and concluded at 9:27pm in a sterile execution chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana, nearly 1000 miles and 22 years removed from his 'crime,'" they wrote.

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