Joe Biden Mulls Federal Death Row Commutations

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As his lame duck “justice” tour rolls on, outgoing U.S. president Joe Biden is reportedly mulling whether to commute the capital sentences of forty (40) federal death row inmates – giving them sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole instead.

First reported by Jess Bravin and Ryan Barber of The Wall Street Journal, the move is reportedly being pushed by attorney general Merrick Garland – although there are three high-profile convicted mass murderers who could remain on death row amidst Biden’s contemplated mass clemency.

One of them is convicted mass killer Dylann Roof of Columbia, S.C., an avowed white supremacist who murdered nine black parishioners at the Mother Emanuel A.M.E. church in Charleston on June 17, 2015. Biden is also reportedly considering whether to leave domestic terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on death row. Tsarnaev and his late brother were responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and wounded more than 250 on the morning of April 15, 2013. Robert Bowers – the perpetrator of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting October 27, 2018 – is another who could miss out on the commutation.

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No mention was made of the status of Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks – escaped inmates who in November 2002 carjacked 44-year-old Alice Donovan of Conway, S.C., kidnapped her in her own car, took her to a secluded cemetery, raped and murdered her. The pair also raped and murdered 19-year-old Samantha Burns of Huntington, West Virginia. Similarly, no mention was made of the status of Brandon Council, who murdered 36-year-old Katie Skeen and 59-year-old Donna Major during a robbery of CresCom bank in Conway, S.C. on August 21, 2017.

A decision on all forty federal death row inmates is expected by Christmas.

Biden campaigned on eliminating the death penalty – and the federal government has not executed anyone since he took office on January 20, 2021. The last federal execution in the United States took place just four days before Biden was sworn in. Under former president Donald Trump, thirteen condemned federal inmates were executed – and Trump has vowed to revive capital punishment in his second term.

Not only that, Trump is pushing to expand the statutory reach of capital punishment – making child rapists, migrants who kill U.S. citizens or police officers and human traffickers eligible for the ultimate punishment.

“These are terrible, terrible, horrible people who are responsible for death, carnage and crime all over the country,” Trump said in launching his 2024 bid.

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RELATED | LINE. THEM. UP.

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Biden’s potential commutations would not impact any of the estimated 2,140 inmates on death row at the state level – including the 30 who currently reside on death row in South Carolina.

I have argued consistently in favor of capital punishment being “broadly implemented” in response to especially heinous cases – such as the brutal kidnapping and murder of 21-year-old University of South Carolina student Samantha Lee Josephson in March of 2019.

“There’s no point having a debate over the efficacy of capital punishment if it is only going to be carried out once a year using the most genteel of methods,” I wrote seven years ago in an expansive piece on criminal justice reform.  “There’s simply nothing to debate under these circumstances except that killing someone in America (has become) a ticket to stardom and ‘three hots and a cot’ for life courtesy of the taxpayers.”

Despite state law providing for the death penalty in specific cases, the option has not been readily available to Palmetto State prosecutors in recent years. That changed this year, however, when the S.C. supreme court overturned a lower court ruling which had effectively barred the S.C. Department of Corrections (SCDC) from carrying out these sentences.

While Biden and other “justice warriors” continue their attempts to undo accountability, I plan on continuing to insist on it. Of course, as is the case with any issue FITSNews covers, our media outlet is open to those with dissenting views.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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