A South Carolina man convicted in the brutal double murder of two bank employees in 2017 is asking for a “compassionate release” days after President Biden spared his life and commuted his death sentence.
Brandon Council, 28, was convicted in September 2019 in the 2017 double murder of Conway bank employees Katie Skeen, 36, and Donna Major, 59. Council was then sentenced to death by a federal court one month later.
Council was one of 37 federal inmates on death row who had their sentences commuted to life in prison by Biden.
On Friday, Council filed a motion in the U.S. District Court in Florence arguing that he deserved a “compassionate release” because he had 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 in solitary confinement since Nov. 4, 2019, according to records obtained by WBTW.
President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end the Biden-Harris administration’s moratorium on federal executions when he returns to office.
Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, on Christmas Day to call out Biden for his commutation decision.
“They know that their only chance of survival is getting pardons from a man who has absolutely no idea what he is doing,” Trump’s post read.
“Also, to the 37 most violent criminals who killed, raped, and plundered like virtually no one before them, but were just given, incredibly, a pardon by Sleepy Joe Biden. I refuse to wish a Merry Christmas to those lucky ‘souls’ but instead, will say, GO TO HELL!” Trump continued.
The U.S. government has executed 50 inmates since 1927, according to the Bureau of Prisons, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and Cold War spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. That’s far fewer than the individual states, which have executed more than 1,500 condemned inmates in the last 50 years.
The government carried out death sentences for 13 federal prisoners during Trump’s first term, the most under any president in a century.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz and Taylor Penley and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price is writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Story tips and ideas can be sent to [email protected]
