‘Horribly misguided and insulting’: Manchin speaks out on death sentence commutations for murderers of Marshall student
By Autumn Shelton, RealWV
One day after Christmas, Senator Joe Manchin issued a statement on social media expressing his opinion on President Joe Biden’s decision to commute the death sentences of two men who pleaded guilty to the murder of a Marshall University student over 20 years ago.
“After speaking to Samantha Burns’ parents, I believe it is my duty to speak on their behalf and say President Biden’s decision to commute the death sentences for the two men convicted in her brutal murder is horribly misguided and insulting,” wrote Senator Manchin. “Particularly since Samantha’s family wrote letters to President Biden and the Department of Justice, pleading for them not to do this but their concerns were unheard. I can’t imagine the grief that Kandi and John Burns are reliving and dealing with during the holiday season. As their U.S. Senator and a father, I want to express my deepest sympathy for their continued suffering. Please know that Samantha will forever be in our prayers.”
Brandon Leon Basham, 43, and Chadrick Evan Fulks, 47, who pleaded guilty to the murder of 19-year-old Samantha Burns in 2005, were two of the 37 individuals who had their federal death sentences commuted to life without the possibility of parole. This announcement was made by President Biden on Dec. 23.
“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,” according to a press release issued from the White House. “This historic clemency action builds on the President’s record of criminal justice reform. The President has issued more commutations at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same point in their first terms.”
Following this announcement, only three individuals remain on federal death row in the United States – Robert Bowers, sentenced to death for the mass shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pennsylvania; Dylann Roof, sentenced to death for the fatal shooting of nine parishioners in a church in South Carolina; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for the deaths of two victims in the Boston Marathon bombing.
Fulks and Basham
According to court documents, Fulks and Basham met in 2002 while they were incarcerated at Hopkins County Detention Center in Kentucky. On Nov. 4, 2002, the two escaped the detention center on foot and began a crime spree that lasted more than two weeks.
On Nov. 11, Fulks and Basham rented a hotel room in Kenova, WV. On that same day, Samantha Burns, who was employed at the JC Penney store inside the Huntington Mall, met her aunt at the mall to purchase clothing.
“At 9:46 p.m. that evening, Burns called her mother to say she was staying at a friend’s house that night,” court records state. “Burns has never been seen since.”
On Nov. 12, near Huntington, members of a local fire department responded to a report of an explosion and a burning car. That burned out car was later discovered to belong to Burns. Two days later, in South Carolina, Fulks and Basham carjacked a vehicle driven by 44-year-old Alice Donovan. Her remains were not found until 2009 in Horry County, South Carolina.
Basham was arrested on Nov. 17 near the Ashland Mall in Kentucky after shooting at an officer.
Fulks was arrested on Nov. 20 in Indiana following a high-speed police chase. Fulks was driving Donovan’s stolen BMW, court records state. After a series of interviews conducted by members of law enforcement, Fulks and Basham were ultimately charged with their crimes against Donovan, including carjacking resulting in death, and were both sentenced to death.
The two were then brought to West Virginia where they pleaded guilty to carjacking and murdering Samantha Burns. They each received life sentences in the Southern District of West Virginia for their crimes against Burns.
To this day, Burns’ remains have not been found.
According to federal inmate records, both Fulks and Basham are incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
