Biden commutes 37 death row sentences. Was SC church shooter Dylann Roof affected?

Noah Feit, The State on Dec 23, 2024

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President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 inmates on federal death row Monday, and they will now serve life in prison without the possibility of parole rather than face execution, according to the White House.

Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof, 30, was one of three federal death row inmates who was not given a reprieve by Biden, and he will remain on the execution list, Newsweek reported. Along with Roof, convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 31, and Tree of Life synagogue shooter Robert Bowers, 52, are still on federal death row, according to the news outlet.

Biden “believes that America must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder — which is why today’s actions apply to all but those cases,” the White House said.

That rationale makes it clear why Roof was left on death row, as he was the first person in the U.S. sentenced to death for a federal hate crime.

Roof, a self-avowed white supremacist from the Columbia area, was convicted on 33 federal charges and was sentenced to death in 2017. Roof told FBI agents he was hoping to start a race war on June 17, 2015, when he opened fire during Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where he killed nine people and wounded another.

Clementa Pinckney, Sharonda Singleton, Daniel Simmons Sr., Cynthia Hurd, Tywanza Sanders, Myra Thompson, Ethel Lance, Susie Jackson and DePayne Middleton-Doctor were shot and killed at the church, also called Mother Emanuel AME.

Roof appealed his conviction, but in 2021 the sentence was unanimously upheld by a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

“His crimes qualify him for the harshest penalty that a just society can impose,” the judges wrote in 2021.

Roof also pleaded guilty to nine counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder in state court and received nine life sentences.

Biden’s decision

Although Roof’s status was not changed, one of the reasons his execution has been delayed is a moratorium on federal executions imposed by Biden when he took office.

As he prepares to leave the White House following the election of Donald Trump, Biden commuted the death row sentences to “prevent the next Administration from carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice,” the White House said.

Monday’s presidential action comes 11 days after Biden granted clemency to more than 1,500 Americans, including two women from South Carolina.

Columbia’s Shawnte Dorothea Williams and Gaffney’s Denita Nicole Parker were pardoned by Biden, the White House said. They were among the 39 people who were pardoned, while an additional 1,499 people had their sentences commuted, according to the White House.

“This historic clemency action builds on the President’s record of criminal justice reform,” the White House said. “President Biden has dedicated his career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system.”

Other capital crimes in South Carolina

Three other men with connections to South Carolina had their death sentences commuted by Biden.

Brandon Council will now serve life in prison, without the possibility of parole, according to the White House. In 2017, Council shot and killed two female employees during a robbery at a CresCom bank in Conway. Council was convicted on murder charges and given a death sentence in 2019.

On Aug. 21, 2017, Council went into the 16th Avenue branch and approached Donna Major at the teller counter and waited about 45 seconds before pulling out a gun and shooting Major twice, McClatchy News previously reported. Katie Skeen screamed in her nearby office, and Council ran to her, then fatally shot Skeen from point-blank range, according to the past report. Council then ran back to Major, who was on the floor behind the counter and shot her in the head before robbing the bank.

In another deadly crime, Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks killed two women, including a 44-year-old woman in Horry County, according to The State. On Monday, both Basham and Fulks had their executions commuted, according to the White House.

Fulks, of West Virginia, and Basham, of Kentucky, were cellmates who escaped from a Kentucky jail in 2002 and went on a 17-day crime spree through Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, The State previously reported.

In 2004, Fulks and Basham were sentenced to death for the kidnapping and killing of Galivants Ferry resident Alice Donovan, who was taken from a Walmart parking lot in Conway, according to The State. Both men were sentenced to life in prison for abducting and killing 19-year-old Marshall University student Samantha Burns, The State reported.

Both men made attempts to appeal their convictions and death sentences, but all were denied.

Praising Biden

One of Biden’s staunchest allies from South Carolina agreed with the president’s decision.

“I applaud (Biden) in his decision to commute the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row,” said U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-Santee. “Many death sentences, reflecting disparate treatment and inadequate defense counsel, have been unjustly adjudicated and wrongly administered. This historic and extraordinary action is a crucial step in remedying grave injustices.”

A South Carolina group also applauded the president’s decision, but said it wanted all of the death sentences commuted — even the one for Roof.

“This morning, we at (South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty) celebrate the commutations issued by President Biden. These acts of clemency are historic, and part of President Biden’s legacy will be that of a leader who stood for racial justice, humanity, and morality,” the organization’s Executive Director Hillary Taylor said in a news release. “The federal death penalty — just like South Carolina’s capital punishment systems — is error prone, racially biased, drains public resources, and does not deter crime or do anything to make our communities safer. With today’s actions, President Biden has done more than any president in history to address capital punishment’s immoral and unconstitutional harms. Biden has taken away Trump’s power to oversee another execution spree — but more importantly, he’s helped set the U.S. on a different course. The brutal and inhumane policies of our past do not belong in our future.”

“Although we had hoped President Biden would commute all federal death sentences, today’s milestone adds to the growing momentum across the country to end the death penalty once and for all.”

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