Oh Former federal prosecutor A case that sent a man to death row says a “shameless killer” will be freed from his sentence after President Biden’s decision Monday to commute nearly all federal inmates facing execution. It’s hard to see.
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 South Carolina bank during a 2017 robbery.
Council was one of 37 convicted murderers who will now serve life in prison without parole after Biden’s death sentence was reclassified.
Derek Shoemake, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of South Carolina and one of the federal prosecutors in the case against the council, told Fox News Digital that seeking justice for victim Donna Major was the “greatest vocation” of his life. It was a professional honor. 59, and Catherine Skeen, 36, and her heart aches for their families after Biden’s decision.
Biden has sentenced 37 federal death row inmates in the last month of his presidency
Donna Major, 59, and Kathryn (Katie) Skeen, 36, were killed in the cold by Brandon Council in 2017 while robbing a South Carolina bank. (Derek Shoemake)
“Donna and Katie were amazing women, wonderful mothers, and a beacon of light in their community. My thoughts and prayers are with their families today, and my heart aches for them as they pass,” Shoemake said in a statement. Follow up on this news,” Shoemaker said in a statement.
He also said his thoughts and prayers are with the team who “worked for over a year” to ensure justice was brought to Major and Skeen. Merciless killer received a sentence that reflected the horrific nature of his senseless crimes.”
Brandon Council is one of 37 federal death row inmates who escaped execution following President Biden’s decision to commute their sentences. (DeathPenaltyInfo.org)
The council admitted to Cresscom Bank. Conway, South Carolina, on August 21, 2017, with the intent to rob the business and kill its employees, according to a 2017 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina (USAO-SC).
After letting him in, Council shot Major, who was a bank teller, multiple times with a revolver, the USAO-SC said at the time. He then ran into Skene’s office, where she worked as a bank manager, and shot her multiple times as she hid under her desk.
Before fleeing the bank, he stole both victims’ car keys, their bank cards and more than $15,000 in cash. He drove one of the cars to the motel he was staying at, packed his things and left.
Bank robbery suspect Brandon Council admits to murder, FBI agent says
“It’s hard to see a sentence being overturned from 400 miles away after it was legally imposed by a jury of South Carolina men and women who listened to the evidence, thought and carefully decided the appropriate sentence,” Shoemaker said. I spent weeks.”
He also said it was heartbreaking that the victims’ families would “celebrate another Christmas without their loved ones,” while the council covers 37 states. Convicted murderer “Celebrating a Political Victory.”
Biden’s decision to reduce the sentences of death row inmates caused a sensation on social media
Most federal death row inmates were housed at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
Shoemaker said his focus is not on the political debate surrounding Biden’s changes, but on the “legacy of love, family and faith” embodied by Major and Skeen.
“I pray for their families, as I often do, and I pray for the families of all the victims today,” he said.
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In one White House statement In announcing the changes on Monday, Biden said he condemned the killers and their “reprehensible actions” and grieved for the victims and families who had suffered “unimaginable and irreparable loss.” , but he “cannot stand back and allow the new administration to resume executions. That I stopped.”
President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 federal death row inmates to life in prison. That leaves 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)
Only three inmates remain on federal death row as Biden’s presidency nears its end. They are Tree of Life Synagogue shooter Robert Bowers, Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.