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Following President Biden’s decision to commute the sentences of 37 federal death row prisoners, Sen. Joe ManchinIW.Va., called the pardon granted to two of the people “horribly wrong and insulting.”
In all 37 cases, Biden commuted the sentences to life sentences without the possibility of 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 reportedly murdered in 2002 at the age of 19.
TRUMP COMMITS TO BRINGING FEDERAL EXECUTIONS BACK AFTER COMMUTING DEATH SENTENCES FOR 37 PRISONERS
Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., speaks during the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the Special Diabetes Program on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, July 11, 2023. (Jemal Condesa/Getty Images for JDRF)
“After speaking with the parents of Samantha Burns, I feel it is my duty to speak on their behalf and say that President Biden’s decision to commute the death sentences for the two men convicted of her brutal murder is horribly misguided and insulting,” declared the legislator in a statement published in X.
“Particularly since Samantha’s family wrote letters to President Biden and the Department of Justice, begging them not to do this, but their concerns were not heard. I can’t imagine the pain Kandi and John Burns are reliving and facing over the holidays. season,” Manchin continued. “As your US senator and father, I want to express my deepest condolences for your continued suffering. Please know that Samantha will always be in our prayers.”
Brandon Basham is pictured after escaping from the Hopkins County Jail in Madisonville, Kentucky, on November 4, 2002. He embarked on an interstate crime spree with fellow fugitive Chadrick Fulks that included the murder of two women. (Ashland Police Department/Getty Images)
The two men linked to the young woman’s death escaped from prison and went on a crime spree in 2002, according to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
“On November 4, 2002, cellmates Chadrick Fulks and Brandon Basham escaped from a Kentucky County Detention Center” and “unleashed a criminal massacre 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.”
Chadrick Fulks is escorted by U.S. Marshals out of the federal courthouse in Huntington, West Virginia, on April 12, 2005, following an arraignment for carjacking that resulted in the death of Marshall University student Samantha Burns, USO of a firearm to commit a crime. and interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle. (AP Photo/The Herald-Dispatch, Randy Snyder)
In a fiery Christmas Day post on Truth Social, President-elect Triumph He told the 37 people who escaped capital punishment: “LET’S GO TO HELL!”
In a statement about the commutations, president biden He said: “I condemn these murderers, mourn the victims of their despicable acts, and mourn all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable losses.”
SEN OUTGOING. JOE MANCHIN PUSHES CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR SUPREME COURT TERM LIMITS
President Biden speaks at the Department of Labor in Washington, DC, on December 16. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
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But he also said 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 murders,” Biden said.
