Outgoing Independent West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin slammed President Joe Biden on Thursday for commuting the death sentences of two men convicted of Samantha Burns’ murder, calling it “horribly misguided and insulting.”
Burns, who was a 19 year-old student at Marshall University, was last seen on Nov. 11, 2002, at the Huntington Mall and her remains were never discovered. Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks were found guilty of the heinous killing and were among the 37 people whose sentences Biden changed Monday. They will now no longer receive the death penalty and instead serve life in prison.
“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. Particularly since Samantha’s family wrote letters to President Biden and the Department of Justice, pleading for them not to do this but their concerns were unheard,” Manchin wrote in a Facebook post. (RELATED: Victims’ Families And Friends Slam Biden For ‘Heartless Decision’ To Shield Child Murderer, Cop Killer From Death Row)
“I can’t imagine the grief that Kandi and John Burns are reliving and dealing with during the holiday season. 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,” Manchin added. (RELATED: Murderers, Rapists And Robbers: Biden Goes On Commutation Spree For Christmas)
On Monday, the White House announced that Biden would be commuting the sentences for everyone on death row except three. Biden reclassified their sentences “from execution to life without the possibility of parole.”
The commutations include murderers, rapists and robbers.
“Guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level. In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted,” Biden said in a statement regarding the commutations.
I am commuting the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole.
This action is consistent with my Administration’s moratorium on federal executions, except for cases involving terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder. pic.twitter.com/Obxfytxxbb
— President Biden (@POTUS) December 23, 2024
The three inmates that are still on federal death row include Dylann Roof, who was responsible for the mass shooting at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was responsible for the bombings during the 2013 Boston Marathon. The other was Robert Bowers who was responsible for the 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
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