by WorldTribune Staff, December 30, 2024 Real World News
A murderer who had his federal death sentence commuted by Joe Biden is now asking for a “compassionate release” from prison.
Brandon Council was convicted in September 2019 in the 2017 double murders of Conway, South Carolina Crescom Bank employees Donna Major and Katie Skeen. He was one of 37 federal inmates on death row who had their sentences commuted to life without parole by Biden.
Related: Pardons watch: Biden commutes sentences of cop killers, child murderers, child rapist, December 23, 2024
Council entered CresCom Bank on Aug. 21, 2017 with the intention of robbing the business and killing its employees, according to a 2017 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina (USAO-SC).
Council shot Major, who was the bank teller, multiple times with a revolver, the USAO-SC said. He then ran into Skeen’s office, where she worked as the bank’s manager, and shot her multiple times while she hid under her desk.
Before fleeing the bank, Council stole keys to both victims’ cars, their bank cards, and more than $15,000 in cash. He took one of the vehicles to a motel he was staying at, packed his luggage, and drove off.
In a motion filed Friday in U.S. District Court, Council argues for a “compassionate release,” alleging that he has been subjected to “severe, unnecessary, and unjustifiable psychological harm” that “can only be accurately construed and assimilated as an act of torture” because he was permanently housed to solitary confinement on Nov. 4, 2019.
According to the Journal of Ethics, a compassionate release is defined as mercy for inmates facing debilitating illnesses or disabilities usually under the condition that care for such inmates is difficult-to-impossible while in prison.
“The petitioner’s subjection to torture is the subsequent result of the petitioner’s sentence to death, however, the additional punishment of solitary confinement which is the cause of the psychological harm is in no manner statutorily authorized, mandated, or required by the petitioner’s sentence to death,” the motion filed in Council’s case states. “Within the jurisdiction of the United States it is both illegal and unconstitutional to inflict or subject any person to torture as a punitive consequence for a crime a party has been duly convicted of.”
When he commuted the death sentences, Biden stated: “I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system.
“Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”
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