Biden's mercy and "the Black Widow Killer"

The story behind one of Joe Biden's 1,499 sentence commutations

A few days ago, I did a post on my Substack site (markstobbe [dot] substack [dot] com]) taking a look at five (more or less randomly selected) individuals who had their sentences commuted by President Biden.

I only scratched the surface. I didn’t look at the other 1,494 people whose sentences were commuted.

Here’s what’s happening south of the border now.

Reporters and other observers of the courts are looking at the list, seeing familiar names, and saying something to the effect of “what the f**k”?”

Aside from the judge who effectively sold kids to the operators of a privately owned prison, the gaudiest case I’ve seen coverage of comes from Maryland.

Josephine Gray – a.k.a. “the Black Widow Killer” had 18 years of her sentence commuted.

In 1974, Gray (then Josephine Stribbling) went for a car ride with her husband, Norman Stribbling. She shot Norman in the head and left him dead in the car beside the road – staging the crime scene to make it look like a robbery. Gray was arrested a few weeks later, but was released on bail. Shortly thereafter, witnesses either recanted or disappeared, so the charges were stayed.

When she murdered Stribbling, Josephine was having an affair with William Gray. She promptly married Gray, thereby becoming Josephine Gray. In 1990, the relationship soured. Josephine was having an affair with a much younger cousin – Clarence Goode. Gray fled the family home, changed the beneficiary on two life insurance policies (but not on a third), and told police that his wife was trying to kill him. Indeed, Norman filed assault charges against Josephine after being stabbed. On another occasion, Josephine and Goode pulled alongside of Norman while he was driving – and took several shots. Their aim was bad. Josephine and Goode were charged with attempted murder, but a week before the trial, William Gray was found dead in his apartment. Josephine and her young lover were charged with murder, but, once again, they got out on bail. Once again, witnesses either recanted or disappeared.

A few years later, it was Good’s turn. He was found dead in the trunk of his car. A few days later, Gray showed another boyfriend an insurance policy she had taken out on Goode for $100,000. She told the replacement boyfriend that she would buy him a new Mustang as soon as the policy was paid out. However, the guy found out that Gray was shopping around for a life insurance policy on him, so he exited the relationship (and blew town) without waiting for the new car.

Thus far, Maryland prosecutors had been unable to mount a prosecution against Gray. Someone would die. Witnesses would give incriminating testimony to police. Gray would be arrested. She would get bail. The witnesses would recant their testimony or depart for parts unknown. The charges would be stayed.

Enter the feds. Specifically, Rod Rosenstein.

That’s right – that Rod Rosenstein. Donald Trump’s least favorite Assistant Attorney General. In the early 2000s, Rosenstein was the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland.

Since murder is usually a state crime rather than a federal one, Rosenstein had to be imaginative to go after Gray. She had collected a total of $165,000 in insurance on her two dead husbands and one dead lover. Insurance policy holders are prohibited from collecting on policies on people whose death they caused. Rosenstein charged Gray with insurance fraud. She was arrested. The federal judge denied bail. The floodgate of witnesses opened. It seems that Gray had intimidated witnesses using either direct threats of violence or voodoo. Once these witnesses were assured that she was safely behind bars until the trial, they recanted their earlier recantations. There were a lot of witnesses and they had very incriminating testimony.

As a result, the trial for insurance fraud was essentially a murder trial. Or three murder trials, to be precise.

The jury was convinced that Gray committed fraud by murder. She was convicted and sentenced to 40 years.

Gray’s appeal was innovative. She argued that she had not committed fraud because the insurance companies had suffered no loss. Her theory was that once a policy was purchased, the insurance company was simply holding the payout money in trust for the beneficiary. She argued that by murdering Stribbling, Gray, and Goode she had simply expedited payment of what was owed to her rather than committing fraud.

The judges on the Fourth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals were not convinced by this argument.

With this, Maryland state prosecutors announced they would not proceed with actual murder charges. They viewed the exercise as redundant and a waste of resources since Gray would be in a federal prison for forty years.

This was not an unreasonable decision for the state prosecutors to make. However, they did not count on Joe Biden commuting Gray’s conviction.

After all, insurance fraud is a non-violent offence.