GRAND RAPIDS — A Kent County man mentioned he does not disagree with President Joe Biden’s resolution to commute the demise sentence of his daughter’s killer.
However, the daddy of 1997 homicide sufferer Rachel Timmerman, whose toddler daughter was by no means discovered, mentioned he is offended it could not wait till after the vacations.
Tim Timmerman (Dec. 23, 2024)
“We thought the timing was despicable,” Tim Timmerman advised WOODTV on Monday, the day after studying Marvin Gabrion’s demise sentence had been commuted.
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“I offered to speak with you today because I’m the family of a victim, and I think President Biden offered a Christmas gift to the perpetrators of murder, but he offered only pain to the victims, the families of the victims,” Tim Timmerman mentioned.
He mentioned the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace in Grand Rapids referred to as him Sunday night time to inform him that Biden had commuted Gabrion’s demise sentence, which implies Gabrion will serve life with no probability of freedom.
Biden mentioned the commutations have been constant along with his administration’s moratorium on federal executions in instances aside from terrorism and hate-motivated mass homicide.
He issued the commutations simply weeks earlier than President-elect Donald Trump, an outspoken proponent of increasing capital punishment, takes workplace.
“You couldn’t imagine someone that deserved it more than Mr. Gabrion,” Tim Timmerman mentioned. “He killed at least five people. Where’s the justice in just giving him a prison bed to die comfortably in?”
An undated picture of Rachel Timmerman and her 11-month-old daughter, Shannon Verhage. (July 26, 2019)
Gabrion was convicted of killing Rachel Timmerman in 1997 — throwing her right into a lake laden and alive — to maintain her from testifying in opposition to him in a rape trial.
Her physique surfaced in Oxford Lake within the Manistee Nationwide Forest, giving the federal authorities jurisdiction.
A federal jury sentenced Gabrion to demise in 2002. He is run out of appeals.
The Michigan Structure banned the demise penalty in 1847.
“It wasn’t me that gave Gabrion the death penalty,” Tim Timmerman mentioned. “It was the jury, and I always think it’s important to point that out, that the jury are the people who sentenced Gabrion to the death penalty. It was the consensus of the jury and not any one person.”
The physique of Rachel’s 11-month-old daughter, Shannon Verhage, was by no means recovered, regardless of repeated searches of the lake.
“From the get-go, we offered to trade the death penalty for information regarding my granddaughter,” Tim Timmerman mentioned. “We supplied that from the very get-go. Gabrion was unwilling to inform us what he did with Shannon, in order that’s at all times remained an open gap in our coronary heart.
“I think we’ve accepted that we’re not going to see Shannon again. We’ve accepted that, so that bargaining chip is really irrelevant,” he added.
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He mentioned he believes her physique is within the lake.
Tim Timmerman, who co-authored a e book on the case, The Coloration of Evening, mentioned he’d accepted, even earlier than the commutation, that Gabrion would possible die a pure demise in jail. Gabrion is now 71.
“Actually, I never really felt that Gabrion would be put to death by the federal government. We felt that the best case would be locked in a very small cage and not allowed to hurt anyone else. That was our best case scenario.”
Rachel could be 46; Shannon could be 28, each in all probability spending Christmas at grandpa’s house in northern Kent County.
“It’s just crazy,” he mentioned. “It’s hard to believe that many years have gone past and it’s still an open wound.”
Gabrion is serving his sentence on the Medical Middle for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri.
