Justice Denied: Victims’ Families Speak Out Against Biden’s Death Row Clemency

Days after the birth of police officer Bryan Hurst’s daughter in early 2005, the Marine was assigned to special duty at a Columbus, Ohio, bank when 25-year-old Daryl Lawrence stormed in with the intent of robbing the establishment. He leaned over a counter and fatally shot the new father at close range. “Bryan was a man who loved his family fiercely. Although a tough exterior, Bryan was a man who cried tears of happiness during our wedding and on the day his daughter was born,” Hurst’s widow, Marissa Gibson, tells The New York Sun.A jury convicted Lawrence and handed down the death penalty the following year. That all, however, fell apart late last year. President Biden, who has long opposed the death penalty, in one of his actions before leaving office commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, including Lawrence, converting their punishments to life without parole. “What I can say about the man who murdered Bryan is this: He didn’t need to kill him. Lawrence wasn’t a man who grew up in abject poverty, he wasn’t mentally ill, he wasn’t committing crimes to provide for his family,” Ms. Gibson, who also works in law enforcement, said. “He made a choice to murder a man who was someone’s husband, father, and son out of sheer greed. I am unclear why he now deserves mercy.”Reaction to Mr. Biden’s commutations was swift, with a spokesman for President Trump, Steven Cheung, calling them “abhorrent” and a “slap in the face” to victims’ families. While some advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, praised the decisions as a step toward ending capital punishment, others expressed outrage.“The commutations are anti-victim. It suggests that, at least for part of the Democratic Party, no crime is heinous enough to warrant the ultimate punishment,” a research head at the Manhattan Institute, Rafael Mangual, tells the Sun.“Bryan was a man who loved his family fiercely,” said his widow, Marissa Gibson. Via Marissa GibsonCrimes Against Women and Children At least nine of the convicts whose death sentences were commuted murdered women and several were also found guilty of killing children. For the daughter of another victim, whose killer received a death penalty reprieve, the past month has been a whirlwind of anguish and disbelief.“This has ripped the band-aid off, bringing back feelings we hadn’t experienced since the trial,” Heather Turner, the daughter of the slain woman, Donna Major, tells the Sun. “This was a huge abuse of power. We have a justice system with checks and balances, and we went through all of them. To have one signature undo all that, just based on personal beliefs, is deeply frustrating.”In August 2017, known criminal Brandon Council committed a robbery at a Conway, South Carolina, bank during which he fatally shot two employees: the 59-year-old Major and 36-year-old Katie Skeen. Council was apprehended two days later and, in September 2019, was convicted on all charges related to the robbery and murders. Up until late last year, he was on death row.Taking Mr. Biden’s olive branch further, Council recently requested “compassionate release” from federal prison for time served. Ms. Turner, meanwhile, describes her mother as “selfless, full of life, and a hard-working Christian woman” who devoted much of her spare time to her grandchildren, volunteering, quilting, and local faith groups. Other murderers of women given commutation included Aquilia Marcivicci Barnette, convicted of murdering his girlfriend and a man during a Virginia carjacking in 1998; Ricardo Sanchez and Daniel Troya, found guilty in Florida in 2009 for their involvement in the drug-related murder of a family, including two children; and Brandon Leon Basham, who escaped from a Kentucky prison and went on to kidnap, rape, and murder two women.Another perpetrator rewarded with commutation is an alleged serial killer, Marvin Gabrion. In the summer of 1997, 19-year-old Rachel Timmerman of Cedar Springs, Michigan, vanished just two days before she was set to testify in court against Gabrion, who raped her the previous year. Timmerman’s 11-month-old daughter, Shannon, also disappeared.Timmerman’s body was later found in the murky waters of Oxford Lake, her wrists and ankles bound, her mouth covered with duct tape, and her body weighed down by cinder blocks to ensure she would never resurface. Shannon’s body was never recovered. Although Gabrion was never officially tried for the infant’s murder, court documents stated it was “virtually undisputed” that she, too, had been killed.Donna Major, who was slain at a bank, was a selfless, full of life, hard-working Christian. She devoted much of her spare time to her grandchildren. Via Heather Turner“You couldn’t imagine someone that deserved it more than Mr. Gabrion. He killed at least five people,” Timmerman’s father, Tim Timmerman, told the local Grand Rapids channel News8. “Where’s the justice in just giving him a prison bed to die comfortably in?”Mr. Timmerman said that it wasn’t he who issued the death penalty, but it was “the consensus of the jury and not any one person.”Ms. Turner emphasized a similar sentiment: “We chose to go to trial for the most severe penalty possible because the plea deal was life in prison. During the trial, we saw images and videos I never would have chosen to see, and now all of that is back at the forefront.” She added: “These were all horrific crimes that a jury deliberated on. They saw evidence they never wanted to see and ultimately determined that the death sentence was the appropriate consequence.”Victims’ families lamented that they were not informed in advance by the outgoing Biden administration or given any say in the matter. “I was given absolutely zero heads up from the federal Office for Victims of Crime, nor from the attorney general’s office,” Ms. Gibson said. “That stung. Finding out bad news from the media, instead of straight from the source, is never how it should happen.”Ms. Turner also explained that her family found out last May through its victim advocate that this could be possible. She contacted the pardon attorney’s office and requested an in-person meeting, which was denied. “That was frustrating. We wrote letters and met with them virtually, but since the decision was made, it has been difficult to accept,” she said. “We fought for what we believed was deserved, and for a crime like this, justice is not being served. We felt completely disregarded. It makes the justice system feel broken, like it’s not working as intended.”A former chief of the Manhattan district attorney’s Rackets Bureau and a New York attorney focused on criminal defense, trials, and appeals, Michael Scotto, tells the Sun that “the better practice would have been for President Biden to consult with the affected families like a parole board does prior to considering releasing an eligible offender on parole.”Murder victim Donna Major with her daughters. Via Heather TurnerHe continued: “With all due respect to President Biden, the manner in which he handled the pardons and commutations does not appear to have been given much thought.”Commutations in QuestionThere were just three federal inmates not issued a commutation by Mr. Biden: Dylann Roof, who murdered nine Black worshippers at a Charleston church in 2015; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 2013 Boston Marathon bomber; and Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic attack in America’s history.“I’d like to know President Biden’s thought process on whom he felt deserved mercy and who didn’t,” Ms. Gibson said. Two federal inmates convicted of murder, Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, refused to accept commutations and have filed emergency motions seeking to block the clemency action. The men argue that commuting their sentences would weaken their legal positions by removing the heightened scrutiny applied to death penalty appeals. Whether they can actually refuse the commutations has legal experts scratching their heads. “It’s unclear if acceptance is required for a commutation to take effect. If they wish to proceed with their original sentences, it will be interesting to see how that plays out legally,” Mr. Mangual said. A 1927 United States Supreme Court ruling affirms that the president has the authority to grant reprieves and pardons without requiring the convict’s consent. The president’s power to grant pardons or commutations applies only to federal cases, leaving state death sentences unaffected. Capital Punishment: A Contentious Issue The use of capital punishment in the United States is a divisive issue, with debates over morality, justice, racial bias, and wrongful convictions. While some see it as a deterrent, others argue its application is flawed and irreversible. Anti-death penalty advocates argue that death sentences cost more than life in prison, given the extensive legal processes required for capital cases, including lengthy trials, mandatory appeals, and prolonged incarceration on death row — all of which demand significant taxpayer funding. Life imprisonment avoids many of these costly legal proceedings.“While death penalty cases are expensive due to legal procedures, cost alone isn’t a compelling argument. The criminal justice system isn’t based solely on economic calculations — it’s about expressing societal condemnation of heinous crimes,” Mr. Mangual contended. “Punishment serves deterrent and incapacitation purposes.”Twenty-seven states still allow capital punishment, while 23 states and the District of Columbia have abolished it; five have paused executions. Nearly 2,200 prisoners are on death row in states, though the number has been decreasing over the past two decades. Since 1976, more than 1,600 executions have taken place, mostly in the South, sparking ongoing controversies over execution methods, appeals, and racial disparities.“Public opinion has been trending away from capital punishment for a long time, and we remain the only Western nation that still uses this practice,” a New York-based criminal defense attorney, Gary Kaufman, tells the Sun. “Death is irreversible. If someone put to death is later discovered not to be guilty, then there is nothing that can bring them back.”Mr. Kaufman, however, also acknowledged that he does not believe “capital punishment will be completely abolished in the United States in the near future.”“I believe that at the state level, the trend of fewer states using it will continue,” he said. Mr. Trump signed an executive order in January to resume executions in federal cases and has called for an expansion of the punishment. During his first term, he oversaw 13 federal executions — the most by any modern president — and even praised China’s harsher approach to drug crimes. For those who have lost their loved ones in the most tragic ways, the Biden commutations are more than just policy — they cut deep, striking at the heart of personal grief and justice.“There must be a harsh consequence,” Ms. Turner added. “It’s devastating to have that overturned so easily.”

Justice Denied: Victims’ Families Speak Out Against Biden’s Death Row Clemency

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