Former federal prosecutor in death penalty case talks about Biden’s sentence commutation

A former federal prosecutor in the case that sent a man to death row says it’s difficult to imagine a “relentless murderer” being freed from his prison sentence after President Biden’s decision Monday to release nearly all federal inmates facing the Execution imminent.

Brandon Council of North Carolina was sentenced to death by a federal jury on October 3, 2019, after he was found guilty of killing two women who worked at a bank in South Carolina during a 2017 robbery.

Council was one of 37 convicted murderers who will now face life in prison without parole after Biden reclassified their death sentences.

Derek Shoemake, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of South Carolina and one of the federal prosecutors in the case against Council, told Fox News Digital that advocating for justice for victim Donna Major was “one of the greatest professional honors” of his life. 59, and Kathryn Skeen, 36, and his heart aches for their families after Biden’s decision.

Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates in the final month of his presidency

Donna Major, 59, and Kathryn (Katie) Skeen, 36, were killed in cold blood by Brandon Council as he robbed a bank in South Carolina in 2017. (Derek Shoemake)

“Donna and Katie were amazing women, wonderful mothers and bright lights in their community. Today, my thoughts and prayers are with their families, and my heart aches for them as they process this news,” Shoemake said in a statement.

He also said that his thoughts and prayers were with the team that “worked for more than a year” to bring justice to Major and Skeen, “to ensure that a remorseless murderer received a punishment that reflected the horrific nature of his death.” senseless crimes.”

Brandon Council is one of 37 federal death row inmates who avoided execution after President Biden voted to commute their sentences. (DeathPenaltyInfo.org)

According to a 2017 press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina (USAO-SC), on August 21, 2017, the Council entered the CresCom Bank in Conway, South Carolina with the intent to rob the company and its killing employees).

After making it inside, the council shot Major, the bank teller, several times with a revolver, the USAO-SC said at the time. He then ran into Skeen’s office, where she worked as the bank’s manager, and shot her multiple times while she hid under her desk.

Before fleeing the bank, he stole the two victims’ car keys, their bank cards and more than $15,000 in cash. He drove one of the vehicles to a motel where he was staying, packed his luggage and drove off.

FBI agent says bank robbery suspect Brandon Council confessed he would kill

“It is difficult to imagine a verdict from 400 miles away being wiped away after it has been legally imposed by a jury of men and women from South Carolina who spent weeks listening to evidence, deliberating and carefully deciding on the appropriate sentence,” Shoemake said .

He also said it hurt that the victims’ families “will celebrate another Christmas without their loved ones” while Council was among 37 state-convicted murderers “celebrating a political victory.”

Biden’s decision to commute sentences for death row inmates sparks uproar on social media

Most federal death row inmates were housed at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

Shoemake said his focus was not on the political debate surrounding Biden’s commutations, but on the “legacy of love, family and faith” that Major and Skeen embodied.

“I pray for their families, as I so often do, and I pray for all the families of the victims affected today,” he said.

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In a White House statement announcing the commutations on Monday, Biden said he condemned the killers and their “despicable acts” and mourned the victims and families who had suffered “unimaginable and irreparable losses,” but he ” cannot stand down and allow.” A new government resumes executions that I stopped.

President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 convicted murderers on federal death row, commuting their sentences to life in prison. He left behind Tree of Life Synagogue shooter Robert Bowers (left), Charleston Church shooter Dylann Roof (center) and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (right). (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, from left, Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, FBI via AP)

As Biden’s presidency nears its end, only three inmates remain on federal death row. They are Tree of Life Synagogue shooter Robert Bowers, Charleston Church shooter Dylann Roof and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.