19-year-old Rachel Timmerman was abducted by Marvin Gabrion after she warned law enforcement that he posed a threat to her life in 1997. She was set to testify against him for raping her, but never got the chance to do so.
Her body was later discovered in Michigan’s Manistee National Forest, bound in chains with her mouth and eyes taped. Timmerman’s 11-month-old daughter also disappeared and was never found. After being convicted of the crime, Gabrion was sentenced to death in 2002 and has spent the last two decades appealing the decision.
President Biden recently announced commutations for 37 of the 40 federal inmates on death row, including Gabrion. The decision sparked outrage from Velda Robinson, Rachel Timmerman’s mother.
“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. They really shouldn’t judge me for wanting it,” Robinson told The Detroit News.
“People need to know that when you do something so heinous, you ain’t going to get away with it,” she continued. “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.”
The commutation comes as Biden announced that in his last few weeks in office, he would be commuting the sentence of 37 of the 40 criminals who are on federal death row. The list includes others convicted of heinous crimes, such as Thomas Steven Sanders, who kidnapped and murdered a 12-year-old girl, and Daryl Lawrence, who killed a police officer in 2006.
Biden’s decision, which is being seen by some as an effort to align with the anti-death penalty faction of his party, has been met with immediate backlash due to the severity of the crimes committed by those whose sentences were commuted. Senator Tom Cotton responded to the announcement, claiming that Democrats are not giving the victims of these crimes justice.
“Once again, Democrats side with depraved criminals over their victims, public order, and common decency,” Cotton posted on X. “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.”
