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In a stunning display of contempt for crime victims and their families, U.S. president Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 inmates on the federal death row this week – including grants of clemency to a pair of convicted killers who committed horrific murders in South Carolina.
“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden wrote in issuing the commutations. “But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”
Hailed by the liberal media as “one of the most significant moves taken against capital punishment in recent presidential history,” the selective commutations excluded three high-profile mass killers – white supremacist Dylann Roof of Columbia, S.C. (who murdered nine black parishioners at the Mother Emanuel A.M.E. church in 2015), domestic terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (who along with his late brother carried out the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013) and Robert Bowers (the perpetrator of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue killing that left eleven dead).
Apparently Biden’s purportedly “bold move” against capital punishment wasn’t without political calculation…
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Those close to the victims of Biden’s clemency recipients were understandably outraged.
“To all of you Die hard Democrats, I just thought I would let you know that YOUR president just granted clemency to the man that killed Katie Skeen!” wrote Tracy Skeen, widower of Katie Skeen.
“I feel like I could throw up!” another one of Skeen’s relatives, Stacy Cox Cannon, wrote. “I just have no words.”
Katie Skeen, 36, was one of two bank employees savagely murdered by Brandon Council during the robbery of CresCom bank in Conway, S.C. on August 21, 2017. Council also murdered 59-year-old Donna Major during that robbery.
Cannon posted this picture of Skeen on her Facebook page…
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Major’s daughter, Heather Turner, also blasted Biden for commuting Council’s sentence.
“Joe Biden has officially commuted the sentence of the man who murdered my mom, Donna DeVuyst Major, and co worker, Katie Skeen,” Turner wrote. “A sentence that was handed down by a judge and jury who determined that was what was deserved after hearing and seeing all the details of the heinous crimes. At no point did the president consider the victims. Actually, when requesting a formal in person meeting with the federal pardon attorney, we were denied.”
“The pain and trauma we have endured over the last seven years has been indescribable,” Turner continued. “Sitting in a court room for weeks seeing videos and pictures of my mom’s murder with the hope of justice was now just a waste of time. You don’t unsee the graphic images we were shown.”
“Our judicial system is broken,” Turner concluded. “Our government is a joke. Joe Biden’s decision is a clear gross abuse of power. He, and his supporters, have blood on their hands.”
Former federal prosecutor Derek Shoemake – now an attorney in private practice in Lugoff, S.C. – was on the prosecutorial team that secured Council’s death penalty conviction.
According to Shoemake, “it is difficult to see a sentence wiped away from 400 miles away after it was legally imposed by a jury of men and women from South Carolina who spent weeks listening to evidence, deliberating, and carefully deciding the appropriate punishment.”
“It is also difficult to know that the Skeen and Major families will celebrate yet another Christmas without their loved ones, while the man who killed Donna and Katie will be among the list of federally convicted murders celebrating a political victory,” Shoemake added.
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RELATED | LINE. THEM. UP.
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“Donna and Katie were amazing women, wonderful mothers, and beacons of light in their community,” Shoemake said. “Today my thoughts and prayers are with their families, and my heart aches for them as they process this news. My thoughts and prayers are also with the numerous dedicated law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and legal staff who worked for more than a year fighting for Donna and Katie, and ensuring a remorseless murderer received a sentence that spoke to the horrific nature of his senseless crimes.”
Biden also commuted the death sentences of Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks – escaped inmates who in November 2002 carjacked 44-year-old Alice Donovan of Galivants Ferry, 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.
Where is their justice? And the justice for their loved ones?
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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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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11 comments
Biden, no deep thinker at the best of times, thinks that there is/are “levels of evil” applicable to murderers and only those who are terrorist or haters actually deserve death. Since all crime is “hate crime”, the very idea that “why you did it” matters is anathema to “justice”. You are either justified by circumstances and found innocent OR you are guilty of murder – there is no “level of evil”.
Biden’s campaign promise to his base was to eliminate the federal death penalty all together – something he did ABSOLUTELY nothing about for his entire pRESIDENCY in the White House.
The entire Catholic Church, the largest Christian denomination in the world, opposes the death penalty. Throughout history, thousands of innocent people have been killed by the Government. What purpose does it serve other than retribution? Life in prison is punishment. Death ends punishment. To Christians, it also ends an opportunity for the salvation of a soul.
What I don’t understand is your obvious hatred of a man whose Presidency has been at worst an average Presidency; and at best well above average. We have had a good economy. The annual deficit was lower than under Trump. Our relationship with other countries is better than under Trump. If you value NATO it is stronger than ever. GDP is up. I cannot think of one objective metric that does not come out better during the Biden Presidency than under the first Trump Presidency.
The “entire Catholic Church” believes whatever the Pope tells them to believe, and they actually don’t oppose the death penalty by doctrine. The new 1993 Catechism of the Catholic Church, written in 1992 under the supervision of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), recognized that “in cases of extreme gravity,” it is the right of public authority to implement the death penalty. Ratzinger believed that the death penalty could be imposed on very rare occasions—which are almost “nonexistent”—against an “aggressor” who continues to threaten lives. Such a context would reduce the moral issue of the death penalty to that of self -defense. The Vatican itself allowed criminals and heretics to be put to death until 1969 and the history of the Catholic Church is such that the value of their opinion of capital punishment is dubious at best.
The Inquisition, let’s begin
The Inquisition, look out sin
We have a mission
to convert the Jews (Jew ja Jew ja Jew ja Jews)
We’re gonna teach them wrong from right
We’re gonna help them see the light
And make an offer that they can’t refuse (that the Jews just can’t refuse)
Catholics aren’t Christians.
They follow the pope, not Jesus.
They also don’t believe “And as it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgement.” Heb 9:27
They believe in purgatory, prayers for the dead, and uncertainty of salvation, so your argument about them opposing the death penalty because it cuts short a chance for one to be saved is not valid.
Aside from all of that, it doesn’t matter what Biden or any other person’s cherry-picked religious views are…crime victims (which Biden is NOT) can choose to personally forgive or not, but the STATE (government) still has an obligation to try and punish criminals.
Of course, the fact that you state the economy was better under Biden, he’s wonderful, etc. makes me pretty sure you are a bot, but I wanted to point all this out just in case you are not.
Says the guy who follows a book that was written by Catholics
Biden is a vegetable who is signing anything the ultra left puts in front of him. The Trump administration needs to petition the Supreme Court to invalidate all of Biden’s pardons by showing he was mentally incompetent to comprehend what he was doing much like heirs do when a will is changed by a person who isn’t mentally competent to do so.
Exactly
What a POS. Those poor families having to deal with this.
One metric I can think of is Trump doesn’t have catholic supporters turning a blind eye to pedophile priests and supporting an abortionist president (who is also a hypocrite in catholic clothing).
“In a stunning display of contempt for crime victims and their families”
I hope you were near your fainting couch when you had the vapors over this.
You have to be evil to be a democrat.