Following President Biden’s move to commute the sentences of 37 prisoners on federal death row, Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., called the clemency granted to two of the individuals “horribly misguided and insulting.”
In the 37 cases, Biden commuted the sentences to life sentences without the potential for parole.
Manchin — a Democrat-turned-independent senator who will soon leave office — said he felt a responsibility to speak out on behalf of the parents of Samantha Burns, who was slain in 2002 at the age of 19, according to reports.
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“After speaking to Samantha Burns’ parents, I believe it is my duty to speak on their behalf and say President Biden’s decision to commute the death sentences for the two men convicted in her brutal murder is horribly misguided and insulting,” the lawmaker declared in a statement posted on X.
“Particularly since Samantha’s family wrote letters to President Biden & the Department of Justice, pleading for them not to do this, but their concerns were unheard. I can’t imagine the grief that Kandi and John Burns are reliving and dealing with during the holiday season,” Manchin continued. “As their U.S. Senator and a father, I want to express my deepest sympathy for their continued suffering. Please know that Samantha will forever be in our prayers.”
The two men connected with the young woman’s death escaped lockup and went on a crime spree in 2002, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
“On November 4, 2002, cellmates Chadrick Fulks and Brandon Basham escaped from a county detention facility in Kentucky” and “unleashed a criminal rampage that lasted seventeen days and zigzagged across several states,” according to the court, which noted that the men “admitted to killing Burns and pleaded guilty to carjacking resulting in death in the Southern District of West Virginia.”
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In a fiery Christmas Day post on Truth Social, President-elect Trump told the 37 individuals who escaped capital punishment to “GO TO HELL!”
In a statement about the commutations, President Biden said, “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.”
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But he also said that he was “more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”
“These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,” Biden said.
