A Fraternal Order of Police chapter expressed "outrage" at President Joe Biden' death row commutation of a cop killer on Monday, with the fallen officer's widow calling it "distressing."
FOP Capital City Lodge #9, which represents Columbus, Ohio, called the reprieve given to convicted cop killer Daryl Lawrence an "inexcusable affront to the memory" of Officer Bryan Hurst, shot and killed in the line of duty by Lawrence in 2005.
Biden's commutation of Lawrence was one of 37 that Biden handed out to federal death row inmates on Monday, including at least five child killers and several mass murderers.
"The decision to commute the sentence of Daryl Lawrence is an inexcusable affront to the memory of Officer Bryan Hurst and the law enforcement community as a whole," Brian Steel, president of the Columbus chapter of the FOP, said in the statement. "Bryan made the ultimate sacrifice, and this decision undermines the justice that was rightfully served for his murder. We owe it to Bryan and to all officers who put their lives on the line every day to continue advocating for justice."
Hurst, 33, was shot and killed while on special duty at a bank that Lawrence was trying to rob in January 2005, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
"While this is truly distressing news on a personal level for my family, it also feels like a complete dismissal and undermining of the federal justice system," Marissa Gibson, Hurst's widow, said in a statement to the Dispatch. "Lawrence's sentence was imposed by a jury, and it should be upheld as such."
Biden put federal executions on hold when he took office in January 2021. He said Monday that his commutations were to prevent President-elect Donald Trump from carrying out executions.
"In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted," Biden said.
Biden's decision means that the likes of Lawrence, Jorge Avila-Torrez, and Thomas Sanders will be removed from death row. Sanders kidnapped, shot and killed a 12-year-old girl after murdering her mother in 2010. Avila-Torrez sexually assaulted and stabbed to death two girls — aged 8 and 9 — in 2005, the New York Post reported.
In Lawrence's case, the former federal prosecutor who tried the case told the Dispatch that Lawrence planned to kill Hurst as part of the bank robbery.
"The commutation of Lawrence's sentence disregards the gravity of his crime and diminishes accountability for those who target the brave men and women who serve in uniform," read the FOP statement.