Biden commutes federal death row sentences for 3 inmates from NC. Who are they?

President Joe Biden commuted the federal death sentences of 37 inmates Monday, including three North Carolina inmates sentenced for violent killings.

Aquilia Marcivicci Barnette, Richard Allen Jackson and Alejandro Enrique Ramirez Umaña will all remain in prison for life without the possibility of parole after Biden commuted the sentences of nearly all inmates on federal death row. The move comes just weeks after Biden granted clemency to nearly 1,500 other people placed on home confinement and pardoned 39 people convicted of non-violent crimes.

“(Biden) believes that America must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder – which is why today’s actions apply to all but those cases,” a news release from the White House says. “When President Biden came into office, his Administration imposed a moratorium on federal executions, and his actions today will prevent the next Administration from carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice.”

Read the stories behind the three inmates from North Carolina who were on federal death row.

Aquilia Marcivicci Barnette

Barnette, of Charlotte, was sentenced in 1998 for the killing of two people: his ex-girlfriend Robin Williams, and a man, Donald Lee Allen, whose car Barnette stole on his way to kill Williams. By including both killings in one case, U.S. prosecutors were able to successfully seek a death sentence, according to an archived article from Roanoke Times.

Barnette went to Williams’ home in Roanoke, Virginia in April 1996, and threw a firebomb into her apartment. Williams was able to crawl out of her window as the fire spread and was hospitalized with second- and third-degree burns. Williams reported Barnette to Roanoke police who issued a warrant for his arrest.

After fleeing Williams’ home, Barnette returned to Charlotte, where he lived, and purchased a shotgun illegally due to his status as a convicted felon. In June, Barnette approached Allen in his car near Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, ordered him out of the vehicle, walked him over to a nearby ditch and shot him three times before leaving him dead in the ditch and driving his car back to Roanoke.

In Roanoke, at the home of Williams’ mother, Barnette chased Williams down the street with a shotgun. Williams tripped and fell during the chase, leading Barnette to drag her back to her mother’s house where he shot Williams in her side and then in her back, killing her.

Barnette fled to Charlotte where he was arrested and confessed to police. A jury found him guilty of all 11 charges against him.

Richard Allen Jackson

A federal jury sentenced Jackson to death in 2001 for the murder of Karen Styles in 1994 in the Pisgah National Forest near Asheville.

Jackson purchased a rifle and ammunition, duct tape, batteries and a flashlight from a K-Mart near the site of the killing on Oct. 28, 1994. On October 31, Jackson went to a trail at Pisgah National Forest where he parked and watched Styles, a recent college graduate, stretch and make her way down the trail for a jog.

He followed her down the trail, eventually pointing a gun at her head before covering her mouth and eyes with duct tape and taping her to a tree. Jackson raped Styles and shocked her with a stun gun multiple times near her pubic area. With the duct tape around her mouth loosened, Styles began screaming, after which Jackson shot her in the head once, killing her, according to his confession.

After the killing, Jackson returned the rifle to the same K-Mart, receiving a refund. Styles’ body was found by a hunter over three weeks later. Investigators traced the brand of duct tape back to the nearby K-Mart where they identified a receipt that connected Jackson to the purchase.

Jackson fully confessed to Buncombe County police on December 20. He was found guilty of using a firearm in relation to a crime of violence including murder, kidnapping and sexual abuse by a federal grand jury in 2000.

Alejandro Enrique Ramirez Umaña

A 12-person Charlotte jury unanimously sentenced Umaña to death in 2010 after convicting him for the murders of brothers Ruben Garcia Salinas and Manuel Garcia Salinas. Umaña was a member of Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, a criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles. Umaña came to Charlotte from Los Angeles in order to support and organize MS-13 members in the area, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Umaña shot and killed the two brothers at the Las Jarochitas restaurant in Greensboro after they made fun of Umaña’s gang signs and called them fake, according to witnesses. Umaña shot one brother in the head and the other in the chest, as well as one other person who survived. After the shooting, Umaña returned to Charlotte. He was arrested five days later when he was found in possession of the murder weapon.

Umaña was also found guilty of other killings during the sentencing process, including Jose Herrera, Gustavo Porras and Andy Abarca in Los Angeles in 2005. According to the news release, Umaña “coordinated attempts to kill witnesses and informants.”

Three exceptions

Biden chose not to commute the sentences of three inmates on federal death row, saying he did not want to commute the sentences of inmates connected to terrorism or hate-motivated mass murders.

Once such inmate is Dylann Roof, who shot and killed nine people in a racially-motivated murder at a Charleston, South Carolina church.

The other two inmates left on federal death row are Robert Bowers, who conducted a mass shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was involved in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

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