Rejon Taylor, a federal inmate whose death sentence was commuted by President Biden, says President Trump's executive order on the death penalty has destroyed the joy he felt at receiving clemency.
Rejon Taylor , a federal inmate whose death sentence was commuted by then-President Joe Biden last month, says President Donald Trump 's executive order on the death penalty has destroyed the joy he felt at receiving clemency. 'I thanked publicly for his gift of mercy and life. Because that's what I thought clemency would be, should be, a gift of mercy and life,' Taylor told Newsweek via email.
But an executive order Trump signed on his first day back in office 'singled out' Taylor and the 36 others whose death sentences Biden converted to life in prison, he said. 'It put us on notice that we, the cursed ones, are marked for a kind of death. A slow death. But a death nevertheless.' Taylor was sentenced to death in 2008 for fatally shooting Atlanta restaurant owner Guy Luck in 2003. His lawyers said Taylor, who was 18 at the time, had 'discharged his gun in a panic' as Luck tried to grab a gun inside a van in Tennessee. Newsweek has reached out to the White House for comment via email on Monday morning. Why It Matters Trump, who oversaw an unprecedented 13 executions during the final months of his first term, had been expected to restart federal executions in his second term. However, Biden's clemency action shortly before leaving office prevents Trump from embarking on another spree of federal executions. Only three inmates remain on federal death row and all have appeals that must be resolved before their executions can be carried out. Just hours after returning to the White House last Monday, Trump signed an executive order on the death penalty that death penalty opponents fear could drastically expand executions. The order instructed the U.S. attorney general to evaluate the prison conditions of the 37 inmates whose death sentences Biden commuted to 'ensure that these offenders are imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose.' It also instructed the attorney general to evaluate whether those men can be charged with state capital crimes and 'recommend appropriate action to state and local authorities.' What To Know Taylor said he was initially grateful for Biden's commutations and that it meant he didn't have to endure the trauma of another execution spree. 'I mistook this curse for a blessing,' Taylor told Newsweek. 'As such, I was grateful for it, more so for my community on federal death row than for myself. I thought it was a way out: No more fighting for sanity in the trenches. No more ministering on the frontlines. No more government-sponsored executions. I didn't want to live through more executions. I couldn't stand another killing spree.' But the clemency had 'marked' him and the 36 others for 'retribution,' he said. 'I'm in the crosshairs of a petty, vengeful god,' he said, referring to Trump. Taylor said he received a notice last week that said he was being transferred to the ADX Florence in Colorado, the federal government's 'supermax' facility that is so remote and where conditions are so severe that it's known as the 'Alcatraz of the Rockies.'''All of you are going to the ADX,' I was told upon signing the paper,' Taylor said. He also said he had received a notice of a psychological evaluation to determine his eligibility to be transferred to the Control Unit, one of the most restrictive at ADX Florence where inmates are isolated at all times, including for recreation, and remain in their cells for at least 23 hours a day. There, he says, his life will be far worse that it is at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. 'If the rumors are true about the conditions of ADX, I will have no way to email. I will be lockdown worse than I am on federal death row, in a place somewhat underground, where security is the most restrictive,' Taylor said. 'My connection to the outside world is my lifeline, my strength, my reason for existing under inhumane conditions. Take away my means of communicating with my support network in society is to deprive me of life and my source of resiliency.' He added: 'I have no doubt that I won't make it out alive.' Scott Taylor, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons, declined to confirm to Newsweek that the inmates were being transferred to ADX Florence, saying only that they would be transferred to 'an institution commensurate with their respective safety, security, health, and programming needs.' What People Are Saying President Donald Trump's order said Biden had commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 'most vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on Federal death row: remorseless criminals who brutalized young children, strangled and drowned their victims, and hunted strangers for sport.' It added that efforts 'to subvert and undermine capital punishment defy the laws of our nation, make a mockery of justice, and insult the victims of these horrible crimes.'
DEATH PENALTY TRUMP BIDEN REJON TAYLOR FEDERAL PRISON ADX FLORENCE CLEMENCY EXECUTIVE ORDER HUMAN RIGHTS
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