BALTIMORE — President Joe Biden has commuted the sentence of a Maryland woman once dubbed “the Black Widow” by federal prosecutors, who convicted her in a 2002 jury trial of mail and wire fraud for “intentionally” causing the deaths of a boyfriend and at least one husband in order to collect around $160,000 in combined life insurance payouts.

Josephine Gray, now in her late 70s, was sentenced to 40 years in prison in connection with the deaths, which occurred in 1990 and 1996. Biden commuted her sentence in December, along with nearly 1,500 other people, who, like Gray, were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gray’s home detention ends in April.

“The story of Josephine Gray is one of a very devious and murderous person, collecting insurance proceeds from killing men over the course of decades,” said James Trusty, who prosecuted Gray during his tenure as an assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland.

Jim Wyda, federal public defender for the district of Maryland, describes the commutation as “just, practical, and merciful,” however. He said Gray is “confined to a wheelchair and can barely stand,” and that the commutation “merely finalizes” her “compassionate release status,” allowing early release for a person who is seriously ill or disabled.

In a Dec. 12 White House release, the Biden administration emphasized its intent on granting clemency to people convicted of “non-violent crimes.” The White House specified that the 39 people who were pardoned — that is, completely cleared of a crime — were in the “non-violent” category, but it did not specify the same for those who had their sentences commuted or lessened.

“If someone told President Biden that Josephine Gray was non-violent, they should be fired,” former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in an email. Rosenstein was serving as U.S. Attorney for Maryland at the time of Gray’s re-sentencing in 2006, following her appeal. “Federal courts found that Gray is a serial killer who committed premeditated murders to collect the victims’ life insurance proceeds,” he said.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The Dec. 12 release described those with commuted sentences as people “who have shown successful rehabilitation and a strong commitment to making their communities safer.”

Grayalso was suspected in the 1974 murder of her husband, Norman Stribbling, who died of a gunshot wound to the head. Two people said Gray had solicited them separately to murder him, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Gray received $16,000 in life insurance, though she was never convicted in that case.

The next year, she married William Robert Gray, who was found shot dead in his apartment in 1990 after they’d separated. He had previously told other people that she was trying to kill him and had assaulted him, according to court records. Josephine Gray later collected $54,000 from his life insurance policies and was found liable in his death by the 2002 jury.

The federal jury also found Josephine Gray intentionally caused the death in 1996 of her boyfriend Clarence Goode, whose body was discovered in the trunk of his car in Baltimore with a gunshot wound to the head. A large blood stain was found on the concrete floor of Gray’s garage. She collected $90,000, and her son received $10,000 in insurance benefits.

Trusty, the prosecutor in the Gray case, criticized the sentence commutation.

“She’s now been able, over the years, to convince the Bureau of Prisons that she’s, you know, on the brink of death,” he said. “Maybe there’s some truth to it, I don’t know. But she went to a medical facility for a long time. She got released on home detention … To me, whether those were legitimate downgrades or not, she’s the last person that deserves a break.”

Trusty described her as “very, very good at intimidating witnesses.” Though Gray was charged shortly after the killings of her first and second husbands, the charges were dismissed and she was not convicted until many years later because witnesses were intimidated by her voodoo practices, according to previous reporting in The Baltimore Sun.

“They were always afraid to cross her,” Trusty said. “She was into voodoo, and she was a terrifying figure to a lot of people that kept seeing her, kept knowing she was involved in murders, but didn’t have any way of seeing her swept off the streets and put away.”

Public defender Wyda said in an email that Gray “is no danger to anyone and it would be difficult if not impossible for the Bureau of Prisons to care for her.”

He added, “Compassionate release policies are designed in recognition that appropriate care for patients with debilitating illnesses is difficult and in some cases impossible while the person is in prison.”

_____

©2024 Baltimore Sun. Visit baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.