Former federal prosecutor in Brandon Council’s death penalty case speaks out on Biden commuting murderer’s sentence

A former federal prosecutor who sent a man to death in that case says a “definite killer” will be spared his sentence following President Biden’s decision Monday to commute nearly all federal inmates facing execution. It’s hard to see it go away with impunity.

Brandon Council, of North Carolina, was sentenced to death by a federal jury on October 3, 2019, after he was found guilty of murdering two women who worked at a South Carolina bank during a robbery in 2017.

Council was one of 37 convicted murderers who will now spend life in prison without parole after Biden reclassified their death sentences.

Derek Shoemake, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of South Carolina and one of the federal prosecutors in the case against Council, told Fox News Digital that securing justice for Donna Major’s victims was “the greatest professional honor” of his life. 59, and Kathryn Skeen, 36, and their hearts go out to their families following Biden’s decision.

“Donna and Katie were amazing women, amazing mothers and rays of light in their community. “My thoughts and prayers are with their families today and my heart goes out to them as they process this news,” Shoemaker said in a statement.

He also said his thoughts and prayers were with the team who “worked for more than a year” to bring Major and Skeen to justice, “ensuring that a cold-blooded killer received a sentence that fits his senseless crimes.” speaks to the horrific nature of

According to a 2017 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina (USAO-SC), Council entered the Crescom Bank in Conway, South Carolina on August 21, 2017, with the intent to rob the business and kill its employees. ,

USAO-SC said at the time that after going inside, Council shot Major, who was a bank teller, several times with a revolver. He then ran to Skeen’s office, where she worked as the bank’s manager, and shot her several times as she hid under her desk.

Before fleeing the bank, he stole both victims’ car keys, their bank cards, and over $15,000 in cash. He took one of the vehicles to the motel where he was staying, packed his belongings and left.

“It is difficult to overturn a sentence 400 miles away after it has been legally imposed by a jury of South Carolina men and women who listened to the evidence, deliberated and carefully decided the appropriate sentence,” said Shoemake. Spent several weeks.”

He also said it hurts that the victims’ families will “celebrate another Christmas without their loved ones”, while Council is one of 37 federally convicted murderers who are “celebrating a political victory.”

Shumake said his focus is not on the political debate surrounding Biden’s commutation, but on the “legacy of love, family and faith” that Major and Skeen embodied.

“I pray for their families, as I often do, and I pray for the families of all the victims affected today,” he said.

In a White House statement announcing the sentence reductions on Monday, Biden said he condemned the murderers and their “despicable acts,” and he grieved for the victims and families who suffered “unimaginable and irreparable harm.” “has taken place, but he cannot “stand back and let a new administration resume the executions I had stopped.”

Only three inmates remain on federal death row as the end of Biden’s presidency approaches. They are Tree of Life synagogue shooter Robert Bowers, Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof, and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.