XPost: alt.activism.death-penalty, sac.politics, alt.war.civil.usa
XPost: alt.society.liberalism, alt.fan.states.south-carolina

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Seven people sentenced to death in the Carolinas were among the more than three dozen federal death row inmates
to have their sentences commuted earlier this week.

The group who are now incarcerated with life sentences includes a gang
leader, a kidnapper, and a bank robber all convicted of murder in either
North or South Carolina.

The family of bank teller Donna Major were quick to blast the
commutations, which were ordered on Dec. 23 by President Joe Biden.
Brandon Council shot and killed Major and her co-worker during a robbery
in Conway, South Carolina, in 2017.

Major’s daughter, Katie Jenkins, spoke with Fox News.

“We trusted the judicial system, we sat through court, I watched my mom be murdered, I watched images of her body laying on the ground,” said
Jenkins.

The commutations also included Alejandro Umana, a Charlotte man who is
part of the gang MS-13. He was sentenced to death in 2010 after being
convicted of fatally shooting two brothers in a Greensboro restaurant
after they called Umana’s gang signs “fake.” During his trial, Umana
attempted to bring a knife into the courtroom.

Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks are also among those who have new
sentences. After they escaped from a Kentucky prison, the pair kidnapped
Alice Donovan from a South Carolina Walmart. Her family waited years
before her remains were finally discovered.

Donovan’s daughter, Angie Gilchrist, spoke with Queen City News’ Jody Barr
in 2008.

“I want to hear the words, ‘It’s Alice Donovan, it’s your mom.’” she told
Barr. “Just so that I can finally release everything I have been holding
inside for six years so that I can actually cry and mourn the loss of my mother.”

Richard Jackson will also be given a life sentence. He was on death row
for raping and killing Karen Styles while she was out for a run in Pisgah National Forest.

In a statement, President Biden condemned the inmate’s crimes but said
that his conscience guided him to his decision, “… 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 had issued a moratorium on most federal executions when he came into office.

Only three federal inmates remain on death row, they face either terrorism
or mass murder convictions. That includes the Tree of Life synagogue
shooter, one of the Boston bombers, and Dylann Roof, the gunman who killed
nine people at a Charleston, SC, church in 2015.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/families-carolina-murder-victims-react- 223537465.html

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