(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) (Getty Images)
ATLANTA - Two of the federal inmates on death row whose lives have been spared by President Joe Biden are from the state of Georgia.
Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row on Monday morning, converting their punishments to life imprisonment.
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Those two inmates from Georgia are Meier Jason Brown and Anthony Battle.
Who is Anthony Battle?
Anthony Battle was convicted and sentenced to death in 1997 for killing a prison guard. He was the first Georgia man to receive a federal death sentence after Congress restored capital punishment in 1988.
Battle was sentenced to die after he killed 31-year-old guard D'Antonio Washington. Battle, who was serving a life sentence for the 1987 murder of his wife, repeatedly struck Washington in the back of the head with a hammer at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, when Battle was given a chance at the end of his trial to ask jurors to spare his life, he told them that Washington "died like a dog."
Who is Meier Jason Brown?
Meier Jason Brown was convicted and sentenced to death by a federal jury in Savannah in 2003 for the fatal stabbing of a postal worker.
On Nov. 30, 2002, Brown killed 48-year-old postmistress Sallie Gaglia during a robbery. He reportedly stabbed her 10 times.
His lawyer Jeffrey Ertel, called Biden's decision a "historic" one and says he is still trying to process it, but it is layered with emotions.
"I want to say joy, but joy tempered by, you know, this is they're spending the rest of their life in jail," stated Ertel. "And there are other people, families that are probably not happy with this result."
He said his client regrets what he did and has an exemplary prison record.
"The day he was arrested, he gave a confession, a remorseful confession, so much so that the lead detective was a defense witness at the penalty phase, asking the jury not to impose a death sentence because he believed he was truly remorseful," described Ertel.
Ertel said this is the first time a president has done something of this size.
"I think we hoped that President Biden would commute some sentences. I don't think anybody thought it would be of this magnitude. I think it's difficult to put into words. I will say that I think the legal community is stunned by it," he said.
The Atlanta-based Faith Leaders of Color Coalition, who reportedly sent a letter on behalf of more than 200 Black and indigenous faith leaders to the president asking him to commute federal death sentences, issued the following statement:
"President Biden has answered the prayers of hundreds of Black faith leaders who urged him to make this courageous decision. By commuting federal death sentences, the President has taken an important step to address the racial bias and arbitrariness that plague the federal death penalty system. This decision also ensures that the door to redemption remains open for the men who will now serve life sentences instead of facing execution."
Trump slams Biden's federal death row commutations
President-elect Trump’s team slammed President Biden’s decision on Monday.
"These are among the worst killers in the world and this abhorrent decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones. President Trump stands for the rule of law, which will return when he is back in the White House after he was elected with a massive mandate from the American people," stated Steven Cheung, Trump's communications director.
RELATED
- Letters Calling On President Biden To Commute All Federal Death Sentences (via Washington Post)
- Another letter to President Biden
- Statements of Support (via Innocence Project)
Why did Biden commute death row sentences?
In a statement, Biden said, "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," Biden continued. "These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder."
Biden also said that he condemns the murders and grieves for the victims, but he was guided by his conscience and his experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice president, and president. He added that he is "convinced more than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level."
With Biden’s move, there are now just three federal inmates still facing execution.
They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.