President Biden infuriated those on the right and left with his shocking decision to grant clemency to most of the men on federal death row. He announced two days before Christmas that 37 of the 40 prisoners facing execution would have their sentences reclassified to life without the possibility of parole. As Mia reported, “Of those spared from execution, at least five killed children, nine were deemed too dangerous to live after butchering fellow inmates, and many of them committed mass murders.”
Now, Brandon Council, 28, who was convicted in 2019 in the 2017 double murder of two bank employees—Katie Skeen, 36, and Donna Major, 59—is asking for something else.
In the motion, filed Friday in US District Court in Florence, Council argues for a compassionate release because he’s been subjected to “severe, unnecessary, and unjustifiable psychological harm” that “can only be accurately construed and assimilated as an act of torture” since he was permanently housed to solitary confinement on Nov. 4, 2019.
According to the Journal of Ethics, compassionate release is a form of early release for seriously ill or disabled patients who are incarcerated. Compassionate release policies are designed in recognition that appropriate care for patients with debilitating illnesses is difficult and in some cases impossible while the person is 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 reads. “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.” (WBTW)
In addition to politicians and pundits blasting Biden's act of clemency, many of the victims' families spoke out as well.
"I was angry. I'm still angry," the daughter of bank victim Donna Major told "Fox & Friends."
"I am upset that this is even happening, that one man can make this decision without even talking to the victims, without any regard for what we've been through, what we're going through, and completely hurt, frustrated and angry," she added.
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"She was shown no mercy at all. This man walked into the bank, never said two words to her. Shot her three times in total. He went and shot her coworker, Katie Skeen as well, who was totally defenseless and unaware of anything happening," noted Major's husband, Danny Jenkins. "I can't even believe that this is actually happening…"
