Murderer who killed two female bank workers makes entitled demand days after Biden commuted his execution

A killer who brutally gunned down two innocent female bank employees has now demanded to be released from prison – just days after President Biden rescued him from death row.

38-year-old Brandon Council, who was sentenced to death for the cold-blooded murder of bank employees Donna Major and Katie Skeen, filed the bold request for compassionate release on Friday.

Council murdered the two women during a gruesome bank robbery in Conway, South Carolina, in 2017.

After a three-week trial, he was convicted in September 2019, and judges handed down the death penalty the following month.

But in a controversial move, Biden commuted his sentence to life in prison last Monday, in one of his last presidential decisions before his term ends next month.

Now the Council has made the rightful demand to walk around freely.

The killer’s legal motion, filed in U.S. District Court in Florence, claims he has been subjected to “severe, unnecessary and unjustifiable psychological harm” in solitary confinement since November 2019.

Katie Skeen, 36, (left) and Donna Major, 59, were killed during an armed bank robbery in 2017 in Conway, South Carolina

The motions alleged that the damages “can only be accurately interpreted and assimilated as an act of torture.”

According to medical experts writing in the Journal of Ethics, compassionate release is intended for seriously ill or disabled prisoners.

The motion continued: “Petitioner’s subjection to torture is the result of petitioner’s death penalty, but the additional punishment of solitary confinement that is the cause of the psychological harm is in no way legally authorized, imposed, or required by law. petitioner sentenced to death.”

“Within the jurisdiction of the United States, it is both illegal and unconstitutional to subject or subject any person to torture as a punitive consequence for a crime of which any party has been justly convicted.”

This comes after the family of Skeen, who was brutally shot along with her colleague Major during an armed bank robbery, branded Biden a “low life” for his decision to commute the killer’s death sentence to a life sentence.

Skeen, 38, was an employee at CresCom Bank in Conway, South Carolina, when she and Major, 59, were victims of armed robber Council during a 2017 robbery.

After a three-week trial, he was convicted in September 2019, with judges handing down the death penalty the following month. But in a controversial move, Biden commuted his sentence to life in prison on Monday. Now the Council has made the rightful demand to walk around freely

Speaking to DailyMail.com, Skeen’s mother, Betty Davis, 78, said: ‘He has a low life. Both Biden and Council are both low-lifes.”

According to Davis, she and the rest of the family, including Skeen’s father, John, 78, her husband of 16 years, Tracy, 52, and two sons Noah, 22, and River, 17, were informed of the decision. president during a conference call with victim advocates last Sunday.

Council, they were told, was one of 37 murderers, rapists and career criminals whose death sentences were commuted to life without parole by the outgoing president.

Three others were not spared.

Davis said, “I just felt heartbroken when they told us. It was like my world collapsed again.’

Recalling the day her daughter was killed, Davis said, “My husband got a call from the sheriff and he just flew out the door. River and I jumped in my car and followed him to the sheriff’s department and that’s when they told us. Then all hell began.”

Turning her attention to her daughter’s killer, she said: ‘He deserved the punishment he got. My daughter had no choice about her fate, she could not choose what he did to her.”

The murders of Skeen and Major were captured on the bank’s security footage. They were played during the three-week Council trial in 2019, meaning their families had to witness the horror of the women’s terrifying final moments.

Skeen’s mother said, “Everyone should see the video of what he did to them. Everyone should have seen his face when he killed them, there was no emotion. There is no room for sympathy for that man.

Katie Skeen, 36, was one of two employees at CresCom bank killed by armed robber Brandon Council, 38 – his death sentence commuted by President Joe Biden along with 36 others

President Biden announced Monday that he will commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row — meaning they will now serve life sentences without the possibility of parole.

‘The fact that he received the death penalty meant everything to us. It meant justice for Katie and Donna.”

Davis said the family — including Skeen’s husband with whom they remain very close — has been buoyed by the messages of support they have received following Biden’s announcement Monday.

The family has stayed in touch with the investigators who arrested Council and the attorneys who prosecuted him and, Davis said, they are as “heartbroken” by the news as Skeen’s own loved ones.

She said: ‘The last few days have been depressing, but the messages from friends touch you and show you that you are not alone.’

She added that the entire family would be together during the holidays and that Skeen, a devout born-again Christian, would be with them in spirit.

The small town of Conway, South Carolina was rocked by the senseless killings of the women. With just over 17,000 residents at the time, the violence hit the coastal town in Horry County hard.