A Michigan woman whose 19-year-old daughter was raped and murdered is speaking out after President Joe Biden commuted the attacker's sentence from death to life in prison.
"Those that don't believe in the death penalty I believe, honestly, that they have never been traumatized by somebody so vile, that they couldn't comprehend where I'm coming from," the girl's mother, Velda Robinson, told The Detroit News this week. "They really shouldn't judge me for wanting it."
Robinson's daughter, Rachel Timmerman, was raped. In 1997, she and her family warned police that her attacker Marvin Gabrion would kill her.
He kidnapped Timmerman and murdered her. Her body was found in the Manistee National Forest. Her mouth and eyes were taped shut, and chains had been padlocked around her body. Her 11-month-old daughter, Shannon, has never been found.
Gabrion was sentenced to death in 2002, and has been appealing the ruling for 22 years before Biden commuted his sentence.
Just three men still face the death penalty: Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who bombed the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring dozens of others; and Dylann Roof, who killed nine Black churchgoers in South Carolina in 2015.
Robinson told The Detroit News that the death sentence for such crimes is important.
"People need to know that when you do something so heinous, you ain't going to get away with it," she said. "How does Biden justify whose crime is worse than the others? [The jury] made this decision and he just slapped the whole judicial system down."
Brandon Council, another of the prisoners whose sentence Biden commuted, was in prison facing death after he killed Donna Major, 59, and Katie Skeen, 36, during an armed robbery on Aug. 21, 2017, at the Crescom Bank in Conway, South Carolina.
Major's daughter, Heather, said she feels "absolute anger" about Biden's move, reported The Daily Wire.
"We were told from our prosecution team on Sunday afternoon," she told Fox News. "I was actually gathered with my in-laws for our family Christmas; my sister was gathered with her in-laws, and we got the call.
"And I was angry. I'm still angry. I am upset that this is even happening, that one man can make this decision without even talking to the victims, without any regard for what we've been through, what we're going through. I'm completely hurt, frustrated, and angry."
Major's husband, Danny, added that his wife was never shown any mercy.
"This man walked into the bank, never said two words to her, shot her three times in total, went and shot her co-worker, Katie Skeen, as well, who was totally defenseless and unaware of any things happening," he said.
"It's just beyond me. I can't even believe that this is actually happening, commuting of sentences like this of 37 victims — all but three, which was certainly a political scheme."
Major added that the Pope had told Biden to stop the executions.
"What the Pope has to do with anything in this country, I don't know, but Joe Biden certainly has no convictions," he said.
"He's a senile old man. He couldn't tie his shoes, I wouldn't think, if you could see him in person. It's absolutely disgusting."
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said on X that Biden's commutations are indefensible.
"Once again, Democrats side with depraved criminals over their victims, public order, and common decency," he wrote. "Democrats can't even defend Biden's outrageous decision as some kind of principled, across-the-board opposition to the death penalty since he didn't commute the three most politically toxic cases. Democrats are the party of politically convenient justice."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.