MORNING HEADLINES | South Carolina mass murderer Dylann Roof, 30, remains on federal death row, one of only three federal prisoners still sentenced to die who did not have sentences commuted earlier today by President Joe Biden.
Biden commuted sentences for 37 of 40 people on death row, each of whom will remain in federal prison for life without the possibility of parole.
“I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” Biden said today in a statement. “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
Those who received commutations included three other South Carolinians:
- Brandon Leon Basham and Chadrick Evan Fulks, co-defendants in a 2004 kidnapping and killing; and
- Brandon Michael Council, sentenced in 2019 in the killing of two bank employees.
In December 2016, a federal jury in Charleston convicted Roof of 33 counts of federal hate crimes and other charges for killing and attempting to kill African-American worshipers at Emanuel AME Church on Calhoun Street. The mass murder of nine people in 2015 shocked the nation. In January 2017, the same jury sentenced Roof to death.
In other headlines:
CP OPINION: Brack: How hope can grow in an age of discontent. “Our region, she says after three decades of working to bring people together to make their communities work better, is where the real work is being done to build hope and reduce barriers that keep people apart.”
CP WEEK IN REVIEW: Supreme Court to hear case on S.C. attempt to refund Planned Parenthood. S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster’s 2018 executive order aimed at defunding abortion provider Planned Parenthood is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
- CP NEWS: Some bills that will fuel 2025 General Assembly
- Bailey wants tougher domestic violence law
- School voucher debate returning with concern students being used as pawns
- S.C. legislative power shifts to Beaufort Co. with six committee leaders
- Congress approves spending bill to avert shutdown
HOLIDAY: Troopers remind people to drive sober over holidays. State troopers say they’ll be out in force across the state over the holidays to combat drunken driving.
BUSINESS: Sheilly to be new Charleston Metro Chamber president. Kevin Sheilly of Ocala will replace Bryan Derreberry as new president of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce in February.
- Expansion possible at S.C. Mercedes plant, documents hint.
- Carnival to depart from S.C., but impact is elusive
- Wentworth Mansion featured in episode of TV show
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