Outgoing Ex-Democrat Blasts Joe Biden For Commutations

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Outgoing United States senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia blasted president Joe Biden for his pre-Christmas decision to commute the death sentences of 37 of 40 inmates on the federal government’s death row.

Manchin specifically slammed Biden for commuting the sentences of 43-year-old Brandon Basham and 47-year-old Chadrick Fulks, two inmates who escaped from a Kentucky jail and embarked on a 17-day crime spree across multiple states in the autumn of 2002.

According to the veteran lawmaker, Biden’s decision to commute Basham and Fulks’ death sentences was “horribly misguided and insulting.”

At approximately 2:37 p.m. EST on the afternoon of November 14, 2002, the two escaped convicts carjacked 44-year-old Alice Donovan of Galivants Ferry, S.C. – kidnapping her from a Walmart in Conway, S.C. From there, they took her to a secluded cemetery where they raped and murdered her – and then proceeded to hide her body.

Donovan’s remains were not discovered until January 2009 – and were not positively identified for another seven months.

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Three days before raping and murdering Donovan, Basham and Fulks kidnapped, raped and murdered 19-year-old Samantha Burns – a student at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Burns telephoned her mother at 9:45 p.m. EST on the evening of November 11, 2002, and told her she was returning to her home in East Hamlin, W.V. – but never arrived.

That was the last time anyone heard from her…

Burns’ vehicle – a 1999 burgundy Chevrolet Cavalier – was discovered at approximately 3:30 a.m. EST the following morning (November 12, 2002) in a secluded region of Wayne County approximately five miles southwest of campus. The vehicle had been set on fire and was still smoldering when it was discovered. All that was recovered of Burns? A heart-shaped ring later found in Basham’s possession.

Her body has never been found.

According to Manchin, Burns’ family “wrote letters to President Biden and the Department of Justice, pleading for them not to (commute the sentences) but their concerns were unheard.”

Sound familiar? That’s the same lack of response Donovan’s family received…

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Adding insult to injury, the U.S. fourth circuit court of appeals upheld Basham and Fulks’ death sentences just two months ago.

“Fulks and Basham carjacked Alice Donovan, kidnapped her in her own car, took her to a secluded cemetery, raped her, and killed her,” the fourth circuit judges noted, accusing the two convicts of having visited “terror upon woman after woman.”

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.

“As soon as I am inaugurated, I will direct the Justice Department to vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “We will be a Nation of Law and Order again!”

The following day, on Christmas, Trump made reference to the “37 most violent criminals, who killed, raped, and plundered like virtually no one before them” but where “incredibly” pardoned by Biden.

“I refuse to wish a Merry Christmas to those lucky ‘souls’ but, instead, will say GO TO HELL!” Trump wrote.

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RELATED | LINE. THEM. UP.

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As noted in prior coverage, I have argued consistently in favor of capital punishment being “broadly implemented” in response to especially heinous cases – like 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 earlier 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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