South Carolina prosecutor seeks death penalty after Biden commutes federal sentence

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SUMMARY

• Prosecutor Jimmy Richardson will seek death penalty against Brandon Council in Horry County if convicted.
• Council’s federal death sentence for killing two bank employees was commuted to life by Biden in December.
• Families and law enforcement criticized Biden’s decision as a betrayal of victims and an abuse of power.
• Council expressed remorse at his federal trial, citing a troubled childhood and cooperation with investigators.

COLUMBIA — A local prosecutor in South Carolina said Tuesday he will seek the death penalty against a man whose federal death sentence for killing two bank employees in a robbery was commuted to life in prison by President Joe Biden at the end of his term.

Brandon Council, 40, did not appear in state court in Horry County as prosecutors formally let the court know that if he is convicted of murder they will ask a jury to sentence him to death.

State murder, armed robbery and other state charges against Council were dropped in 2019 after a federal jury found him guilty of similar charges and sentenced him to death.

But in December, Biden reduced the death sentences of 37 federal inmates, including Council, to life in prison, saying he felt the federal use of the death penalty had to stop and he did not want the next administration to resume executions he had halted.

That led Solicitor Jimmy Richardson to obtain new indictments against Council in Horry County in August, which open the door to a state death penalty trial.

Deadly robbery

Council walked into the CresCom Bank in Conway in August 2017, waiting for a minute before shooting Donna Major as the stunned teller held papers in front of her face trying to protect herself. He then followed manager Katie Skeen into her office and shot her in the forehead as she hid under her desk, authorities said.

Council left the bank with $15,000. He was arrested in North Carolina several days later after buying a Mercedes with the stolen money, according to his confession read in court.

Families and law enforcement angry at Biden’s decision urged local officials to review cases. In Louisiana, prosecutors in Catahoula Parish were able to get a first-degree murder charge refiled against Thomas Steven Sanders in the 2010 death of a 12-year-old girl. That would allow the state to seek the death penalty against him.

Richardson said prosecutors had dropped the state charges in case anything ever happened to change the outcome of the federal case, including commuting his sentence.

“If there was a bump, we could always come in and try our case. And that’s why we dismissed them, so our powder could be dry,” Richardson told reporters after the hearing.

Anger over commutations

The other inmates who had their sentences reduced are being moved to Supermax prisons “where they will spend the rest of their lives in conditions that match their egregious crimes,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media last week.

Bondi called the commutations a betrayal of the families of victims and a stain on the justice system, comments that Richardson echoed when Biden’s decision was announced.

The bank teller’s daughter, Heather Turner, said the victims of the crimes weren’t considered.

“The pain and trauma we have endured over the last 7 years has been indescribable,” Turner wrote on Facebook, describing weeks spent in court in search of justice as “now just a waste of time.”

“Our judicial system is broken. Our government is a joke,” she said. “Joe Biden’s decision is a clear gross abuse of power. He, and his supporters, have blood on their hands.”

Expression of remorse

Attorneys for Council argued at his federal trial his life should be spared because of a troubled childhood, especially after the grandmother who reared him died. They said he showed remorse and cooperated with investigators.

After his arrest, Council asked investigators if the women at the bank were still alive and cried when he found out they were dead, investigators said.

“I’m a doofus. I’m an idiot,” Council told police. “I don’t deserve to live.”

Horry County had a second inmate have a federal death sentence commuted. Chadrick Fulks was convicted of kidnapping a woman from the parking lot of a Walmart in Conway and killing her during a series of crimes across several states. His state charges were dismissed, and court records indicate they have not been reinstated.

Biden did leave three men on federal death row:

• Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist killings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.
• Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of two terrorists behind the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
• Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of life Synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history.

EXTERNAL LINKS

• U,S. Department of Justice
• South Carolina State Courts
• Horry County Solicitor’s Office