President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of two men who had escaped from a western Kentucky prison and went on a multi-state crime spree, ultimately being sentenced to death.
President commuted the federal death sentences of Brandon Basham, 44, and Chadrick Fulks, 48, along with 35 others.
Basham and Fulks were found guilty of murder and various other offenses following their escape from the Hopkins County Jail in 2002. During a 17-day period, the pair embarked on a crime spree spanning multiple states, including Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
In December of that year, both men were convicted for the abduction and murder of Alice Donovan, a 44-year-old woman from South Carolina.
In 2002, they also admitted their guilt in the abduction and murder of Samantha Burns, a 19-year-old student at Marshall University.
37 out of 40 federal death row inmates have had their sentences commuted, but there are still three prisoners who are scheduled for federal execution. These prisoners include Dylann Roof, who was convicted of the 2015 murders at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; Robert Bowers, who was convicted of multiple murders at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
