President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 convicted murderers Monday (Today), including three tied to high profile cases with regional connections.
Biden issued the commutations as incoming President Elect Donald Trump vowed to clear federal death row by executing inmates who appeals had been exhausted.
Among the 37 are Brandon Basham, Chadrick Fulks and Brandon Council.
Council killed two women in a Conway bank robbery in 2017. The Crescom bank robbery sparked a manhunt that spread across Columbus County. Council was hiding in a Conway motel after a string of bank robberies in both states when he robbed the Crescom, killing one of the bank workers as she lay face down on the floor. He was eventually captured in Greenville, N.C. where he admitted to arresting officers that he had shot and killed the two bank employees in Conway.
The other two suspects, Basham and Fulks, escaped prison in Kentucky in 2002 and went on a three-week crime spree. They were eventually captured and convicted in 2004.
They raped and killed Samantha Burns in Kentucky, taking her car. They eventually made it to Horry County, where they kidnapped and killed Allison Donovan.
Donovan’s remains were not found until 2009, after a letter from an inmate described where she was hidden. Both suspects had been convicted in federal court and sentenced to death at that point.
Monica Caison of the CUE Center for Missing Persons searched for Donovan for seven years, and is still searching for Burns. She was horrified at the reduction in sentences for both inmates.
“It took more than seven years to find Alice’s remains, and Samantha is still missing,” Caison said. “The torture both families have endured cannot be described.”
She said she was in contact with Donovan’s daughter and Burns’ mother after the commutations were announced.
“The pain still runs deep,” she said. ”I will never understand why the families of the missing and murdered are given life a life sentence when they have committed no crime, leaving those who brutally murder to get favor.
“Shame on every single person who has allowed this to happen. They are destroying the victims who were left behind.”
Biden said in a statement Monday that he has dedicated his career to abolishing the death penalty, and increasing fairness in the justice system.
