Michigan dad disgusted by Biden's commuting death row sentence for rapist killer who murdered his family

A Michigan father said it’s “despicable” that President Joe Biden would commute the death sentence of a rapist who murdered his daughter as well as his granddaughter. This comes as Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 convicts so they can have life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Marvin Gabrion, 71, was on death row for the 1997 murder of Rachel Timmerman, who was 19 at the time of her death and is believed to have murdered her 11-month-old daughter, the Daily Mail reported.

Timmerman went missing just two days before she was scheduled to appear in court and accuse Gabrion of raping her. Gabrion made sure she never got there. He bound the young woman, put duct tape on her eyes and mouth and then threw her alive into a lake to drown. He attached cinder blocks to her body first, so she had no chance of coming up for air. He is believed to have killed a second victim that day – Timmerman’s 11-month-old daughter. The baby girl’s body was never found.

Timmerman's father, Tim, was outraged over Biden’s decision and his thinking. “We thought the timing was despicable. We felt that President Biden could have waited until after the holidays. I think President Biden offered a Christmas gift to the perpetrators of murder, but he offered only pain to the victims of the families.”

"You couldn't imagine someone that deserved it more than Mr. Gabrion, he killed at least five people. Where's the justice in just giving him a prison bed to die comfortably in?” Timmerman said he was willing to “trade the death penalty” with Gabrion for information about the fate of his granddaughter. Gabrion refused to cooperate and now will never be convinced to do so. “That has always remained a hole in my heart,” Timmerman said of his granddaughter’s presumed death.

According to the outlet, Gabrion informally confessed to killing the baby during prison chatter. He allegedly told another prisoner that he “killed the baby because there was nowhere else to put it.”

Rachel Timmerman was reportedly concerned about her safety prior to her death and predicted that Gabrion would try to kill her to silence her rape testimony. She even called the local sheriff to express her fears and to ensure they were documented. She was supposed to testify in court on June 5, 1997, but her last contact with her family was on June 3.

Biden made the move to commute the death sentences in a spree of clemency in his last days in office. In statement from the White House on the death sentences, he said, "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."