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COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) — Victims' families and others affected by crimes that resulted in federal death row convictions shared a range of emotions on Monday, from relief to anger, after President Joe Biden commuted dozens of the sentences . Biden converted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The inmates include people who were convicted in the slayings of police, military officers and federal prisoners and guards. Others were involved in deadly robberies and drug deals. Three inmates will remain on federal death row: Dylann Roof , convicted of the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; the 2013 Boston Marathon Bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev , and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of life Synagogue in 2018 , the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history. Opponents of the death penalty lauded Biden for a decision they'd long sought. Supporters of Donald Trump , a vocal advocate of expanding capital punishment, criticized the move as an assault to common decency just weeks before the president-elect takes office. Donnie Oliverio, a retired Ohio police officer whose partner was killed by an inmate whose death sentence was commuted, said the execution of “the person who killed my police partner and best friend would have brought me no peace.” “The president has done what is right here,” Oliverio said in a statement also issued by the White House, “and what is consistent with the faith he and I share.” Heather Turner, whose mother, Donna Major, was killed in a bank robbery in South Carolina in 2017, called Biden's commutation of the killer's sentence a “clear gross abuse of power” in a Facebook post, adding that the weeks she spent in court with the hope of justice were now “just a waste of time.” “At no point did the president consider the victims,” Turner wrote. “He, and his supporters, have blood on their hands.” There has always been a broad range of opinions on what punishment Roof should face from the families of the nine people killed and the survivors of the massacre at the Mother Emanuel AME Church. Many forgave him, but some say they can’t forget and their forgiveness doesn’t mean they don’t want to see him put to death for what he did. Felicia Sanders survived the shooting shielding her granddaughter while watching Roof kill her son, Tywanza, and her aunt, Susie Jackson. Sanders brought her bullet-torn bloodstained Bible to his sentencing and said then she can’t even close her eyes to pray because Roof started firing during the closing prayer of Bible study that night. In a text message to her lawyer, Andy Savage, Sanders called Biden’s decision to not spare Roof’s life a wonderful Christmas gift. Michael Graham, whose sister, Cynthia Hurd, was killed, told The Associated Press that Roof’s lack of remorse and simmering white nationalism in the country means he is the kind of dangerous and evil person the death penalty is intended for. “This was a crime against a race of people," Graham said. “It didn’t matter who was there, only that they were Black.” But the Rev. Sharon Richer, who was Tywanza Sanders’ cousin and whose mother, Ethel Lance, was killed, criticized Biden for not sparing Roof and clearing out all of death row. She said every time Roof’s case comes up through numerous appeals it is like reliving the massacre all over again. “I need the President to understand that when you put a killer on death row, you also put their victims' families in limbo with the false promise that we must wait until there is an execution before we can begin to heal,” Richer said in a statement. Richer, a board member of Death Penalty Action, which seeks to abolish capital punishment, was driven to tears by conflicting emotions during a Zoom news conference Monday. “The families are left to be hostages for the years and years of appeals that are to come,” Richer said. “I’ve got to stay away from the news today. I’ve got to turn the TV off — because whose face am I going to see?” Biden is giving more attention to the three inmates he chose not to spare, something they all wanted as a part of what drove them to kill, said Abraham Bonowitz, Death Penalty Action’s executive director. “These three racists and terrorists who have been left on death row came to their crimes from political motivations. When Donald Trump gets to execute them what will really be happening is they will be given a global platform for their agenda of hatred,” Bonowitz said. Biden had faced pressure from advocacy organizations to commute federal death sentences, and several praised him for taking action in his final month in office. Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU, said in a statement that Biden “has shown our country — and the rest of the world — that the brutal and inhumane policies of our past do not belong in our future.” Republicans, including Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, on the other hand, criticized the move — and argued its moral ground was shaky given the three exceptions. “Once again, Democrats side with depraved criminals over their victims, public order, and common decency,” Cotton wrote on X. “Democrats can’t even defend Biden’s outrageous decision as some kind of principled, across-the-board opposition to the death penalty since he didn’t commute the three most politically toxic cases.” Liz Murrill, Louisiana's Republican attorney general, criticized the commuted sentence of Len Davis, a former New Orleans policeman convicted of orchestrating the killing of a woman who had filed a complaint against him. “We can’t trust the Feds to get justice for victims of heinous crimes, so it’s long past time for the state to get it done,” the tough-on-crime Republican said in a written statement to the AP. Two men whose sentences were commuted were Norris Holder and Billie Jerome Allen, on death row for opening fire with assault rifles during a 1997 bank robbery in St. Louis, killing a guard, 46-year-old Richard Heflin. Holder’s attorney, Madeline Cohen, said in an email that Holder, who is Black, was sentenced to death by an all-white jury. She said his case “reflects many of the system’s flaws,” and thanked Biden for commuting his sentence. “Norris’ case exemplifies the racial bias and arbitrariness that led the President to commute federal death sentences,” Cohen said. “Norris has always been deeply remorseful for the pain his actions caused, and we hope this decision brings some measure of closure to Richard Heflin’s family.” Swenson reported from Seattle. Associated Press writers Jim Salter in O'Fallon, Missouri, and Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, contributed to this report.Brewers love crafting a wide array of beers, but over time, beer drinkers have gravitated dramatically toward two key factors – hoppiness and drinkability.
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MENLO PARK, Calif. , Dec. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- BillionToOne, a next-generation molecular diagnostics company with a mission to create powerful and accurate tests that are accessible to all, today announced that they will be presenting at the 43rd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, CA , on January 14, 2025 . BillionToOne marks a transformative year of achievements as it looks toward 2025. The company closed an oversubscribed, upsized Series D funding round led by Premji Invest in June, and was recently recognized as the Biotech Breakthrough Awards' Diagnostics Company of the Year. More than 500,000 patients have received BillionToOne tests to date, and the company has grown from $0M to $150M+ in annual recurring revenue over the past five years. This will be BillionToOne's second year in attendance at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, and the company will present on the topic of "Redefining Molecular Diagnostics with Single-Molecule Precision." Presentation details are as follows: Location: Mission Bay (32nd Floor) at The Westin Date: Tuesday, January 14, 2025 Time: 2:30-2:55 pm PT A webcast and presentation materials will be available on BillionToOne's website: https://billiontoone.com/event/jpm-2025-43rd-annual-healthcare-conference/ About BillionToOne Headquartered in Menlo Park, California , BillionToOne is a precision diagnostics company on a mission to make molecular diagnostics more accurate, efficient, and accessible for everyone. The company's patented Quantitative Counting TechnologyTM (QCTTM) molecular counting platform is the only multiplex technology that can accurately count DNA molecules at the single-molecule level. For more information, please visit www.billiontoone.com . View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/billiontoone-to-present-at-the-43rd-annual-jp-morgan-healthcare-conference-302338634.html SOURCE BillionToOneTiger Woods could not offer much of a timetable Tuesday on PGA Tour negotiations with the Saudi backers of LIV Golf or his own future as a player. Woods is the tournament host of the Hero World Challenge this week, and that’s his only role at Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas. He has played the holiday tournament only once since 2019, missing this year while recovering from a sixth surgery on his lower back. “I’m not tournament sharp yet, no. I’m still not there,” Woods said. “These are 20 of the best players in the world and I’m not sharp enough to compete against them at this level. So when I’m ready to compete and play at this level, then I will.” A big part of his time is occupied by PGA Tour business matters. Woods was appointed to the PGA Tour board a year ago with no term limits, and he also is on the board of the commercial PGA Tour Enterprises. There has been movement on negotiations for the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia to become a minority investor in PGA Tour Enterprises — the tour already has a $1.5 billion investment from Strategic Sports Group and a player equity program. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan played in the Dunhill Links Championship on the European tour with the PIF governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Monahan also played golf with President-elect Donald Trump, who had said he could fix golf’s mess in about 15 minutes. “I think all of us who have been a part of this process would have thought it would have happened quicker than this,” Woods said. He suggested any deal still would have required Justice Department approval. “But things are very fluid, we’re still working through it, it’s happening daily,” Woods said. “From a policy board standpoint or from an enterprise standpoint, things are moving and they’re constructive.” In the meantime, Bloomberg reported last week the European tour is talking with PIF separately, leading to suggestions of a shared schedule in which players from the European tour and LIV Golf could play on each circuit. “We all want to get past this and to do what’s best for the tour and in trying to do that, there’s going to be ... some eggs are going to be knocked over and it’s going to be a little bit difficult at times,” Woods said. “But in the end we’re going to get a product that’s better for all the fans and all the players that are involved and get some peace that the game desperately needs.” As for his own future, Woods was not certain. He was not asked if he planned to play in two weeks at the PNC Championship with his son, Charlie. It’s a 36-hole event hosted by the PGA Tour Champions, so Woods could ride in a cart. He has played it each of the last four years. He looked back at 2024 as a lost year, primarily because of his ailing back that began to spasm as the year went on. Woods had set a goal of playing a big tournament once a month through the majors season, but that fell apart early when he missed The Players Championship in March. He set a Masters record by making his 24th consecutive cut, but then only played at the next three majors and was gone by the weekend at each of them. He had a microdiscectomy in September to alleviate pain down his legs, but he had no idea how often he could play in 2025. “Whether my commitment going forward is once a month, yeah, I could say that all over again,” Woods said. “But I truly don’t know. I’m just trying to rehab and still get stronger and better and feel better, really give myself the best chance I can going into next year. “This year, I had to toss it away and I wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be and I didn’t play as much as I needed to going into the major championships and I didn’t play well at them,” he said. “Hopefully next year will be better. I’ll be physically stronger and better. I know the procedure helped and hopefully that I can then build upon that.”