Mr. Clemency
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@Jolly said in Mr. Clemency:
A Maryland woman dubbed the "Black Widow" for murdering two husbands and a boyfriend for insurance money is now free after President Joe Biden commuted her 40-year prison sentence, undercutting the White House's claim that Biden released only "non-violent" offenders in a clemency bonanza last week.
Among the 1,500 federal convicts granted clemency was Josephine Virginia Gray, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2002 for insurance fraud schemes connected to the murders of three men between 1974 and 1996. Gray was resentenced to the same amount of time again in 2006 following a series of appeals.
The COVID-19 pandemic allowed Gray—and the rest of Biden's clemency recipients—to serve out their sentences in home confinement. Now, Biden has freed Gray altogether in what the White House called the "largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history." Biden, in order to correct historical "injustices," granted clemency to those "convicted of non-violent crimes who were sentenced under outdated laws, policies, and practices that left them with longer sentences than if the individuals were sentenced today," the White House said.
But Gray’s body count "puts the lie to [Biden’s claim that] these are non-violent offenders," according to a former federal prosecutor who handled her case.
"It pisses me off, as you can imagine," James Trusty, who prosecuted Gray as assistant U.S. attorney in Greenbelt, Md., told the Washington Free Beacon.
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It’s true they didn’t review the individual cases when they decided to grant clemency to all the folks on home confinement and that was disastrous in certain cases. To me the most notorious is the Pennsylvania judge who sent kids to private prisons for money.
But I’m not going to call them out for lying about only releasing non-violent offenders. This woman was only convicted of insurance fraud after all. It would be interesting to know why they didn’t charge or didn’t win the murder charges.
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Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
@jon-nyc said in Mr. Clemency:
This woman was only convicted of insurance fraud after all.
...and not of killing three people to get the money.
That speaks worlds about our judicial system.
@Jolly said:
Does anybody think Biden is actually reviewing any of these cases?
I've heard of day-drinking, but that's just silly.
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Man, how is Hunter going to paint so many pieces? Or is he selling prints now? Making money on the volume rather than margin?
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@Jolly said in Mr. Clemency:
Does anybody think Biden is actually reviewing any of these cases?
I think these were decided as a class rather than individually. People convicted of non-violent offenses who were granted home confinement during Covid back when half the countries prisoners were testing positive. That program had its own requirements (non-violent, older or more at risk to COVID, etc) which they decided to trust. So you get a few cases like these.
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@jon-nyc said in Mr. Clemency:
It’s true they didn’t review the individual cases when they decided to grant clemency to all the folks on home confinement
Absolutely no excuse for that!!!!!!
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[Biden Weighs Commuting Sentences of Death Row Inmates](Biden Weighs Commuting Sentences of Death Row Inmates)
President Biden is considering commuting the sentences of most, if not all, of the 40 men on the federal government’s death row, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would frustrate President-elect Donald Trump’s ability to resume the rapid pace of executions that marked his first term.
A broad coalition of religious and civil-rights groups has been pressing Biden to take the step, and the effort gained momentum earlier this month after Pope Francis, in his weekly address, prayed for the commutation of America’s condemned inmates. If their death sentences were commuted, the prisoners, all convicted of murder, would serve life without parole. Biden, a devout Catholic, spoke with Francis on Thursday and is scheduled to meet with him at the Vatican next month, the White House said.
A decision from the president could come by Christmas, some of the people said. A principal question is whether the president should issue a blanket commutation of all the condemned men, or whether death sentences should remain for the most heinous convicts, these people said.
A White House spokesman said that no final decision had been made.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, who oversees federal prisons, has recommended that Biden commute all but a handful of the sentences, the people familiar with the matter said, excepting a few terrorism and hate-crimes cases. The Justice Department had no immediate comment.
Possible exceptions could include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three and wounded more than 250 others, Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people in the 2018 attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, and Dylann Roof, who in 2015 killed nine at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Mr. Clemency:
If their death sentences were commuted, the prisoners, all convicted of murder, would serve life without parole
I dont have a big problem with this. The death penalty does not reduce crime, and while I think some people deserve it, it often takes decades or longer for any death sentence to be one. Life in prison is a pretty severe punishment.
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@taiwan_girl said in Mr. Clemency:
I dont have a big problem with this. The death penalty does not reduce crime, and while I think some people deserve it, it often takes decades or longer for any death sentence to be one. Life in prison is a pretty severe punishment.
I don't disagree.
Except...
It's a matter of law. These people were sentenced to death in a legal process. To change it carte-blanche without chaining the law undermines the validity of the courts.
Want to eliminate the death penalty? Fine.
Eliminate the death penalty, but don't play games like this.
I've commented, years ago, about Hernando Williams who raped and murdered the wife of one of my colleagues. I shed no tears and felt no remorse when he met his maker.
Look him up.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Mr. Clemency:
It's a matter of law. These people were sentenced to death in a legal process. To change it carte-blanche without chaining the law undermines the validity of the courts.
Agree. Pardons overall should be eliminated.
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@taiwan_girl said in Mr. Clemency:
The death penalty does not reduce crime,
Try commiting a crime after you're dead.
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@taiwan_girl said in Mr. Clemency:
Pardons overall should be eliminated.
Constitutional amendment.
Good luck.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Mr. Clemency:
Also...I can understand (but not necessarily agree with) the desire to commute a death sentence.
It should be done on an individual, not a carte blanche basis.
This. It’s just circumventing rather than adhering to the law. And I’m a death penalty opponent.
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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@George-K said in Mr. Clemency:
@taiwan_girl said in Mr. Clemency:
Pardons overall should be eliminated.
Constitutional amendment.
Good luck
A hand me down remnant of royal privilege from the much maligned right of kings era.
