Retiring Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., slammed President Joe Biden's decision to commute the death sentences of two men convicted in the murder of Mountain State daughter Samantha Burns.
On Monday, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal inmates on death row, changing the sentences to life in prison without parole ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House on Jan. 20.
"After speaking to Samantha Burns' parents, I believe it is my duty to speak on their behalf and say President Biden's decision to commute the death sentences for the two men convicted in her brutal murder is horribly misguided and insulting," Manchin wrote Thursday in a thread on social platform X.
"Particularly since Samantha's family wrote letters to President Biden & the Department of Justice, pleading for them not to do this, but their concerns were unheard," he said. "I can't imagine the grief that Kandi and John Burns are reliving and dealing with during the holiday season.
"As their U.S. Senator and a father, I want to express my deepest sympathy for their continued suffering," he added. "Please know that Samantha will forever be in our prayers."
Burns was a 19-year-old Marshall University student when she disappeared on Nov. 11, 2002, after calling her mother to say she was on her way home from Huntington, West Virginia. She lived in East Hamlin, West Virginia, at the time.
Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks had escaped from the Hopkins County, Kentucky, jail a week before Burns disappeared and went on a 17-day multi-state crime spree that also claimed the life of South Carolina resident Alice Donovan.
Both Basham and Fulks were convicted in relation to both killings and received the death penalty. They had been sitting on death row for more than 20 years before Biden's act of clemency.
Burns' body has never been found. Fulks attempted to help locate her remains, and was let out of his prison cell to help with the search, but she is still missing.
"I just can't stand the thought that my daughter is out there somewhere," Burns' mother said in 2014. "I'm not going to stop looking for her until we do bring her home."
According to the White House, Biden believes the death penalty should only be used for hate-motivated mass murder and in cases of terrorism.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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