The governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, sharply criticized President Biden on Saturday for commuting the life sentences of two Virginia men who had pleaded guilty in connection with the killing of a police officer. In a phone interview, the governor said that Mr. Biden had made the decision against the advice of one of the top federal prosecutors in the state.
Mr. Biden announced on Friday that he was commuting the sentences of 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. Each of them, he said, was serving a disproportionately long sentence based on outdated guidelines. The grants of clemency marked the broadest commutation of individual sentences ever issued by an American president.
Among those whose sentences were commuted were Ferrone Claiborne and Terence Richardson, who were both arrested in 1998 and charged with murder in the killing of Allen Gibson, a police officer in Waverly, Va. Mr. Gibson was shot while pursuing suspected drug dealers. As part of a deal with local prosecutors, Mr. Richardson pleaded guilty in 1999 to a lesser felony charge of involuntary manslaughter and received a five-year sentence; Mr. Claiborne pleaded guilty to a related misdemeanor and was sentenced to time served.
The officer’s family and law enforcement officers in the state were outraged by the light sentences the men received. In 2000, federal prosecutors brought charges against Mr. Richardson and Mr. Claiborne, accusing them of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and murder in the killing of Mr. Gibson.
A jury acquitted the men of the murder, but it convicted them of the drug charges, putting the men on track for 10-year sentences. Then, at the sentencing, the judge concluded that they had participated in the killing and gave them life in prison.
For years, supporters of criminal justice reform have urged presidents to grant clemency to Mr. Richardson and Mr. Claiborne because, they have claimed, the men were not convicted of murder by a jury. Both men have denied killing Mr. Gibson.
But on Saturday, Governor Youngkin accused the Biden administration of a miscarriage of justice, saying in a telephone interview that Mr. Biden’s decision to cast the men as nonviolent drug offenders was “unconscionable” and “heartbreaking.”
“This is a gross injustice and reflective of not only a Biden presidency and Justice Department who do not seek justice for victims, but are so wayward that they have forgotten what their duties are,” he said. “My heart breaks for the family of Officer Gibson, who was brutally murdered, and here they are having to live with this all over again.”
Mr. Youngkin said that the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Jessica D. Aber, who was appointed by Mr. Biden, had strongly opposed the commutations and advised against granting them.
Ms. Aber’s opposition to the commutations is notable. Under the process used to vet clemency applications in the Biden administration, prosecutors are often consulted, and their opinions are given significant weight in deciding whether to ultimately grant clemency.
The White House did not respond to questions about Mr. Youngkin’s statement.
Criminal justice reform advocates have praised Mr. Biden’s use of clemency in the final days of his presidency. In announcing the commutations on Friday, Mr. Biden said that his decision was “an important step toward righting historic wrongs, correcting sentencing disparities and providing deserving individuals the opportunity to return to their families and communities after spending far too much time behind bars.”
A commutation leaves a guilty verdict intact but reduces or eliminates the sentence.
The decision to bring a federal prosecution against the two men in 2000 after they had received a light sentence was seen as aggressive and unique. It was overseen by an up-and-coming Justice Department prosecutor named James B. Comey, who would go on to become the director of the F.B.I.
Matthew Cullen contributed reporting.
