Former federal prosecutor in death row case speaks on Biden commuting murderer's sentence: 'My heart aches'

A former federal prosecutor in the case that sent a man to death row says it is difficult to see a “remorseless murderer” be relieved of his sentence following President Biden’s decision on Monday to commute nearly all federal inmates facing execution.

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

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

Derek Shoemake, 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 it was “one of the greatest professional honors” of his life to pursue justice for victims Donna Major, 59, and Kathryn Skeen, 36, and his heart aches for their families following Biden’s decision.

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“Donna and Katie were amazing women, wonderful mothers, and beacons of light in their community. Today my thoughts and prayers are with their families, and my heart aches for them as they process this news,” Shoemake said in a statement.

He also said his thoughts and prayers are with the team who “worked for more than a year” getting justice for Major and Skeen, “ensuring a remorseless murderer received a sentence that spoke to the horrific nature of his senseless crimes.”

Brandon Council is one of 37 federal death row inmates who escaped execution following President Biden’s decision to commute their sentences. (DeathPenaltyInfo.org)

Council entered CresCom Bank in Conway, South Carolina, 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).

After making it inside, Council shot Major, who was the bank teller, multiple times with a revolver, the USAO-SC said at the time. 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, he 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.

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“It is difficult to see a sentence wiped away from 400 miles away after it was legally imposed by a jury of men and women from South Carolina who spent weeks listening to evidence, deliberating, and carefully deciding the appropriate punishment,” Shoemake said.

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

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Most federal death row inmates were housed at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

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

“I pray for their families, as I so often do, and I pray for all the victims’ families impacted today,” he said.

In a White House statement announcing the commutations on Monday, Biden said he condemns the murderers and their “despicable acts,” and he grieves for the victims and families who have suffered “unimaginable and irreparable loss,” but he “cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”

President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 convicted murderers on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment. He left Tree of Life Synagogue shooter Robert Bowers (left), Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof (middle) and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (right). (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, from left, Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, FBI via AP)

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