Biden visits South Carolina on his last full day in office. He should really go to Conway. | Opinion
Joe Biden owes his presidency to the Democratic primary voters of South Carolina who helped propel him from also-ran to White House occupant in the 2020 election, so it’s appropriate and appreciated that the 46th president of the United States will spend his last full day in office here.
Thank you, Mr. President, for spending Sunday in legacy mode in the lovely city of Charleston.
Missing from your Sunday itinerary, though, is a stop in Conway, which you really should visit. It’s charming any time of year but especially now that our humid summers have given way to our mild winters. The quaint town 15 miles from the hustle and bustle of Myrtle Beach is one of the oldest in South Carolina. It’s the county seat of Horry County and the home of Coastal Carolina University, so it has that unique infusion of political and student energy. Young and old, its 27,000 residents look after one another the best they can in the manner of places this size.
As you may know, Conway’s population is three people smaller than it should be. Maybe you’ve heard the names of Donna Major, Katie Skeen and Alice Donovan? You should have since you recently took their killers off death row, reducing their sentences to life in prison and ripping open a wound in this town that will never fully heal but that had become less tender with time.
Conway hasn’t forgotten, won’t forget, can’t ever forget Donna and Katie and Alice.It would be the right thing to do, Mr. President, to take a detour Sunday and swing by Conway, to talk to the people of this town and to see what you have wrought. You could even visit the dead women’s families, churches and graves and explain your decision better than you’ve done.
Many Americans couldn’t believe it when you used the unparalleled pardon powers of your office to show leniency to 37 of the world’s worst killers on death row and reduce their punishments to life in prison without possibility of parole just two days before Christmas.
Yet it was this South Carolina city that felt a disproportionate share of the anger and anguish.
Your magnanimous act was meant to make a point: State-sanctioned killing is wrong and the United States should not be in the business of it. People opposed to the death penalty may have rejoiced that they suddenly had a big advocate in you. But in Conway, the death penalty is personal. Three of your forgiven death row inmates killed locals in this setting that’s so small and so charming one real estate agent refers to it as “a Hallmark movie town.”
One man — who shall remain nameless — killed Donna Major and Katie Skeen in a bank robbery on 16th Avenue in 2017. He shot Donna several times then heard Katie make a sound, found her under a desk, shot her at close range and returned to kill Donna. The crime was heinous.
Two other men — again, nameless — carjacked Alice Donovan in a Walmart parking lot off the 501 in 2002. They left her body in brush so thick her remains weren’t found for seven years.
These killings would have been horrific anywhere. But Conway’s the kind of place where they bolts from the blue. You should see it, Mr. President. The mayor has been in office since 2016. Other council members have served even longer. The city’s website distills its closeknit essence to this: “The old live oak trees and the beautiful Waccamaw River provide the perfect setting.”
The city searched for other words Dec. 23 in issuing an official statement on your clemency: “Today’s decision to commute the sentences of the three defendants in these cases has only served to reopen old wounds that our community has spent years trying to heal. We understand that those wounds will never heal for the loved ones of the victims.
“Our deepest sympathies remain with the Major, Skeen, and Donovan families and friends. These cases have left an indelible mark on our community, and we remain committed to supporting victims’ families and ensuring justice for all.”
One local wrote on Conway’s Facebook post: “Every woman I know who was living here when Alice Donovan was abducted was afraid and devastated by what happened to Alice. My sainted mother cried on Elm Street and refused to go that Walmart from then on. And those two bank employees. Went to work. Regular day. And that criminal killed them in cold blood. Conway folks were not accustomed to these kinds of deadly criminal actions. Both of these events were deeply unsettling to the town. These criminals are not worthy of what Biden has done. Period.”
It’s unusual for a city government as a whole to issue such a statement, but reaction to your action was as predictable as a lit powder keg. There’s a way to challenge the disparate treatment and unjust outcomes of the death penalty. Opponents have fought it for years. But discounting the jurors and others who had worked on these cases with such classically American focus and stunning family members, friends and associates of the deceased during the holidays and waning days of your presidency is not it. They had every right to be angry.
Betty Richardson Davis, Katie Skeen’s mother, told The Sun News that taking the death penalty away from her killer is “an injustice.” Daniel Major, Donna Major’s husband, said he was “totally disappointed in our justice system” and called your clemency “a complete abuse of power.”
Some rejoiced at your clemency, true. South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said you have “done more than any president in history to address capital punishment’s immoral and unconstitutional harms.” But you know prosecutors won’t stop seeking the death penalty.
And you didn’t take everyone off of federal death row. You left three killers there, the disturbed men who were convicted of mass murders at the Boston Marathon in 2013, the Emanuel AME church in Charleston in 2015 and the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue in 2018.
Just imagine what your welcome would have been like in Charleston if you had forgiven the man who killed nine parishioners at the historic Black church in a racially motivated attack. Some would have welcomed it, but many others would have been angrier than ever at you.It’s true that you can’t please everyone in politics. But it sure would be nice if you thought of Donna Major, Katie Skeen and Alice Donovan and went to Conway to explain yourself.