Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro denounced President Biden’s decision to commute the sentence of a despised cash-for-kids judge, calling it “absolutely wrong.”
The Democrat denounced Biden’s commutation of the sentence of former Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan, who was convicted in 2011 of a heartless scheme that sent children to for-profit prisons in exchange for millions in kickbacks.
‘Some children have taken their own lives because of this. Families were torn apart,” Shapiro said at a news conference Thursday.
“There were all kinds of mental health issues and fears that stemmed from the fact that these corrupt judges decided they wanted to make money off a child’s back.”
The clemency granted to Conahan was one of as many as 1,500 cases that Biden commuted on Thursday, the largest single-day clemency in modern US history, along with pardons for 39 people.
Notably, commutations do not reach the level of a pardon, as they reduce the sentence served but do not vacate the individual’s conviction and do not imply innocence.
Conahan’s commutation sparked outrage in Pennsylvania, 14 years after he pleaded guilty with Judge Mark Ciavarella to accepting $2.8 million in payments to send children to for-profit prisons.
Biden was also convicted for granting clemency to two Chinese spies and a relative of a CCP leader caught with a stash of child pornography, and a former Illinois official who embezzled $53 million from her hometown.
Former Judge Michael Conahan was convicted in 2011 of a callous scheme to send children to for-profit prisons in exchange for millions in kickbacks. His sentence was commuted by President Biden on Thursday
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro condemned Biden’s decision as ‘absolutely wrong’
Biden’s mass commutation spree comes weeks after he also broke his word to the American people and granted his son Hunter Biden a blanket pardon for any crimes he may have committed since 2014.
At Shapiro’s news conference on Thursday, the governor and expected 2028 presidential candidate said he was stunned by Biden’s commutation of Conahan’s sentence.
“Governors and presidents have a unique power to grant pardons, clemency and commute sentences. It is an absolute power, and it is a power that must be used incredibly carefully,” Shapiro said.
“I will offer these thoughts as an outsider, not privy to all the information he has looked at, but I strongly believe that President Biden was absolutely wrong and has caused a lot of pain here in the Northeast of Pennsylvania.”
He said Conahan’s crimes remain a “black eye on the community” and continue to affect many families “in very deep, profound and sad ways.”
Although Conahan still had eight years left on his sentence, he was released under house arrest in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which Shapiro said was another slap in the face for his victims.
‘He should have spent at least seventeen years in prison, to which he was sentenced by a jury of his peers. He deserves to be behind bars and not walk as a free man,” he said.
Sandy Fonzo, the mother of a teenager who committed suicide in 2003 after Conahan sent him to prison for his first minor drug crime, said in a statement Thursday that Biden’s decision was “very painful.”
“This pardon feels like an injustice to all of us who continue to suffer,” Fonzo said.
Footage of Fonzo confronting Conahan outside the courthouse after his conviction went viral in the aftermath of his commutation, as she yelled at the judge and blamed him for the death of her son Eddie Kenzakoski.
“Do you remember me?” she shouted at the embarrassed judge. “You bastard.”
The clemency granted to Conahan was one of as many as 1,500 cases that Biden commuted on Thursday, the largest single-day clemency in modern US history, along with pardons for 39 people.
Sandy Fonzo, the mother of a teenager who committed suicide in 2003 after Conahan sent him to prison for his first minor drug crime, was seen in 2011 in footage that went viral again this week, yelling at the judge and giving him a called ‘son of a bitch’.
Fonzo’s son Eddie Kenzakoski, 17, was a star wrestler who committed suicide after Conahan sent him to prison in exchange for secret payments
Shapiro said he was reeling from Biden’s massive commutation move, and suggested the thousands of cases decided all at once might be shortsighted.
“I review every case that comes across my desk in which a request for pardon, clemency or a reduced sentence is made, and I take it very seriously. “I am weighing the merits of the case,” he said.
‘I weigh what happened in the legal proceedings. I think about public safety and the victims, and all those things factor into my decision.”
Conahan’s case was far from the only one to come under scrutiny in the final days of Biden’s presidency, with pardons for two Chinese spies and the relative of a leading CCP party member also sparking outrage.
Yanjun Xu and Ji Chaoqun, both convicted of espionage, were pardoned last month, along with Shanlin Jin, a former PhD student in Texas who possessed more than 47,000 images of child pornography.
Three days after their sentences were commuted on November 22, three Americans serving their sentences in China were released.
Biden’s recent pardon list also includes Yanjun Xu (pictured) and Ji Chaoqun, both convicted of espionage, and Shanlin Jin, a former PhD student in Texas who has more than 47,000 images of child pornography in his possession.
The city of Dixon, Illinois was also in action this week as Biden commuted the sentence of Rita Crundwell, 71, (pictured) the city’s former comptroller, who was convicted in 2013 of embezzling more than $53 million from the treasury of the city.
The city of Dixon, Illinois, was also in action this week as Biden commuted the sentence of Rita Crundwell, 71, the city’s former comptroller, who was convicted of embezzling more than $53 million from the city’s coffers.
Crundwell’s case made headlines in 2013 when her crimes marked the largest municipal theft in U.S. history, and she served more than eight years in prison before being released from federal prison in August 2021.
She was in a halfway house and would not be fully released until October 2029.
Dixon City Manager Danny Langloss Jr. said the decision to commute Crundwell’s sentence was “a complete travesty of justice and a slap in the face to our entire community.”
Biden explained his massive commutation transactions on Thursday, saying: “As President, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have shown remorse and rehabilitation, giving Americans the opportunity to participate in everyday life and contribute to their communities, and take steps to eliminate sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses.”