On “Forbes Newsroom,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson slammed President Joe Biden’s decision to commute the sentences of 37 out of the 40 federal death row convicts, including convicted murderers Ricardo Sanchez Jr. and Daniel Troya.
Troya and Sanchez were convicted of murdering the Escobedo family – which included two small children – on a Florida turnpike in 2006.
“I felt like I was punched in the stomach and I really felt for the family of the victims,” Pearson told Forbes. “I mean, how do you find that out on the day before Christmas Eve when families are coming together?”
In a statement on the federal death row commutations, Biden said, “Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” and added that “guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”
“Nobody saw this coming,” Pearson said. “A jury of their peers sat through testimony and ultimately decided that they deserved to die. I believe that, our community believes that, and for Joe Biden [with] the stroke of a pen to commute that is just, it’s insane.”
Watch the full interview above.
