Brandon Leon Basham was convicted in federal court of two deaths that occurred in November 2002. A jury in the District of South Carolina found him guilty on all eight counts of a superseding indictment, among them carjacking resulting in death and kidnapping resulting in death, in the case of Alice Donovan, who was 44. On November 2, 2004, he was sentenced to death on those two counts and to 744 months on the other six. In July 2005 he also pleaded guilty in the Southern District of West Virginia to carjacking resulting in death in the case of Samantha Burns, who was 19, and received a life sentence.
His co-defendant, Chadrick Fulks, pleaded guilty to all eight counts in South Carolina in May 2004 and was sentenced to death there. Fulks also pleaded guilty in West Virginia to the Burns offense and received life. The two men were tried separately, and Basham's capital trial before Chief District Judge Joseph F. Anderson, Jr., ran from September to November 2004.
The Fourth Circuit affirmed Basham's convictions and sentences on direct appeal in 2009, rejected his first challenge under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 in 2015, and turned aside a successive challenge in October 2024. Two months later, on December 23, 2024, President Joe Biden commuted his death sentences, with 36 others, to life without the possibility of parole.
Basham was a lifelong Kentucky resident. He was 23 at the time of his West Virginia plea in July 2005. He was held in a jail in Kentucky until he escaped on November 4, 2002.
What followed lasted 17 days and crossed several states. Two women died, in separate states and on different days, and the federal indictment also covered offenses against other people in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and South Carolina.
Samantha Burns was 19 and came from West Hamlin, West Virginia. She died in West Virginia in November 2002, during the spree. Both Basham and Fulks were sentenced for her death in the Southern District of West Virginia, after guilty pleas to carjacking resulting in death. Basham told the court he did not dispute the prosecution's account of the events.
Alice Donovan was 44. On November 14, 2002, the events that led to her death began in Conway, South Carolina, in a carjacking. The superseding indictment, returned on December 17, 2002, charged Basham with carjacking resulting in death and kidnapping resulting in death in her case. Both of those counts carried the possible penalty of death.
The remaining six counts were interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle (18 U.S.C. § 2312), conspiracy (18 U.S.C. § 371) and four further federal offenses. The court later sentenced them together as a single term of 744 months.
Basham was arrested in Kentucky on November 17, 2002, three days after the events in Conway. Fulks was taken into custody in Indiana on November 20, 2002. The superseding indictment followed on December 17, 2002.
On September 13, 2003, the government gave notice that it would seek the death penalty against Basham. In the months before trial, two lawyers who had represented him at an early stage of the matter were disqualified over a concern about a conflict, and replacement counsel took over. The Fourth Circuit later held that the ruling was within the trial court's discretion and had caused him no prejudice, because the new lawyers were experienced.
The trial began on September 13, 2004, in the federal court at Florence, South Carolina, before Chief District Judge Joseph F. Anderson, Jr. The guilt phase lasted 13 days. The jury returned guilty verdicts on all eight counts.
The penalty phase began on October 12, 2004, and lasted 16 days. Under the Federal Death Penalty Act the jury first had to find that Basham met a threshold of intent for the death. It found that he had committed an intentional act of violence that created a grave risk of death, a finding under 18 U.S.C. § 3591(a)(2)(D). It then found a statutory aggravating factor, that the death occurred during a kidnapping (18 U.S.C. § 3592(c)(1)).
The jury also found non-statutory aggravating factors. They were that Basham had escaped from jail, that Burns had been killed, that he had committed other offenses against people in the course of the spree, and that the death of Donovan had an impact on her family. The jury did not find that he would be dangerous in the future.
On mitigation, at least one juror found two statutory factors and 17 of 20 non-statutory factors. Four of the mitigating factors were found unanimously on at least one count. The jury weighed these against the aggravating factors and returned a sentence of death on both capital counts. On November 2, 2004, the court imposed those sentences and 744 months on the remaining six counts. Judgment was entered on February 16, 2005, and Basham gave notice of appeal on the same date.
On June 30, 2005, Fulks pleaded guilty in federal court in Huntington, West Virginia, to the carjacking offense in the Burns case. Basham followed on July 25, 2005, pleading guilty to carjacking resulting in death. He took the plea to avoid the possible death penalty. U.S. District Judge Chuck Chambers sentenced him to life imprisonment, and both men were by then already under sentence of death in South Carolina.
Basham's appeal was argued on October 31, 2008, before Chief Judge Williams and Judges Traxler and King, who decided it on March 30, 2009, in a published opinion. It affirmed.
The appeal raised a series of trial claims. One concerned the jury foreperson, who had made telephone calls to the media during the trial. The district court had examined the matter and sanctioned the juror, and the Fourth Circuit found that no substantive information was exchanged, so the denial of a new trial stood. Basham also challenged the admission of evidence of other conduct and of the other offenses of the spree under Rules 404(b) and 403. The court rejected those claims, in some instances because any error was harmless, and it found no plain error in the prosecution's closing argument and no cumulative error.
In the penalty phase he objected to several items of evidence, among them an incident in the courtroom. The court found no reversible error. It also held that the omission of a catch-all mitigating factor from the special verdict form did not violate the Constitution, because the judge had told the jurors orally that they could consider any mitigating factor. Applying the statutory review of a death sentence for passion, prejudice or other arbitrary factors, it noted that the jury had rejected future dangerousness and that at least one juror had found nineteen mitigating factors, and concluded that the jury had weighed the evidence with care. The court wrote that the trial "may not have been a perfect one," but that Basham had received a fair one.
After the direct appeal, Basham moved to vacate his sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. The district court denied the motion on June 5, 2013, and denied a motion to alter or amend on August 21, 2013. On June 15, 2015, in No. 13-9, a panel of Chief Judge Traxler and Judges King and Agee affirmed in all respects.
His claims were about the effectiveness of his lawyers and about prosecutorial conduct. They concerned a statement he made to officers, his competency at trial in light of two incidents in court, the handling of evidence of a separate offense, and the handling of trial files during the direct appeal. The court held that the statement-related claims failed for lack of prejudice and that the misconduct claim failed because the record did not show false testimony. It found the trial court's competency findings were not clearly erroneous, counsel's handling of the other-offense evidence reasonable as a matter of trial strategy, and the file-access claim lacking in prejudice.
In June 2016 the Fourth Circuit authorized Basham and Fulks to file successive motions under section 2255. They argued that their convictions under section 924(c), which are tied to the counts of carjacking and kidnapping resulting in death, no longer had a valid predicate offense of a "crime of violence" once the Supreme Court had struck down part of the statutory definition in United States v. Davis. The district court stayed the matter several times pending related decisions, and denied the motions in January 2023, with a certificate of appealability.
The two appeals, Nos. 23-2 (Fulks) and 23-3 (Basham), were argued on September 26, 2024, before Judges Wilkinson, King and Agee. On October 28, 2024, Judge Wilkinson wrote for the panel in a published opinion, cited as 120 F.4th 146, affirming the denial. The court held that the federal carjacking statute can be divided into completed and attempted carjacking, that the record showed both men's convictions rested on completed carjacking, and that completed carjacking is a crime of violence under the force clause of section 924(c)(3)(A). It said that neither Taylor nor Borden changed that result, because carjacking requires an intent to kill or seriously harm. The government had conceded that kidnapping is not a crime of violence under that clause, but the court rejected the argument that the convictions rested on kidnapping alone. It did not reach the question whether, if the section 924 convictions had fallen, the remedy would have extended to the death sentences.
On December 23, 2024, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people then on federal death row to life without the possibility of parole. Basham and Fulks were both on the list. The three men whose sentences were left in place were convicted in cases of terrorism or hate-motivated mass murder.
When the Fourth Circuit ruled in October 2024, Basham and Fulks were held at a federal facility in Indiana. After the commutation each serves life without the possibility of parole.
The case was brought under federal law, not state law. Carjacking resulting in death (18 U.S.C. § 2119) and kidnapping resulting in death (18 U.S.C. § 1201(a)) are among the federal offenses that carry the possibility of a death sentence, and the capital procedure is set out in the Federal Death Penalty Act. A capital jury first decides guilt. In a second hearing it must find a threshold level of intent, at least one statutory aggravating factor, and any non-statutory factors the government has noticed, and it weighs these against the mitigating factors.
The offenses in the two states were prosecuted in two federal districts. The Fourth Circuit hears appeals from the District of South Carolina, and its review of a death sentence includes a statutory inquiry into whether the sentence was imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice or any other arbitrary factor. After direct appeal, a federal prisoner may seek relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, and a second or successive motion needs the court of appeals' authorization, which the Fourth Circuit gave in June 2016.
The Fourth Circuit's 2024 opinion left one question open. Having found that the section 924 convictions rested on completed carjacking, it did not decide whether the remedy for a defective section 924 conviction could reach the death sentences. The point is therefore untested.
The commutation of December 2024 changed only the penalty; the convictions stand. The Burns conviction rests on a plea and was never tried.
November 2002: Samantha Burns dies in West Virginia.
November 14, 2002: The events leading to the death of Alice Donovan begin in Conway, South Carolina.
November 17, 2002: Basham is arrested in Kentucky.
November 20, 2002: Fulks is arrested in Indiana.
December 17, 2002: Superseding indictment, District of South Carolina, eight counts.
September 13, 2003: Notice of intent to seek the death penalty.
May 2004: Fulks pleads guilty to all eight counts.
September 13, 2004: Basham's trial begins in Florence.
October 12, 2004: Penalty phase begins.
November 2, 2004: Death sentences on two counts and 744 months on six counts.
February 16, 2005: Judgment entered; notice of appeal filed.
June 30, 2005: Fulks pleads guilty in Huntington, West Virginia.
July 25, 2005: Basham pleads guilty in Huntington to carjacking resulting in death and receives a life sentence.
March 30, 2009: Fourth Circuit affirms on direct appeal.
June 5, 2013: District court denies the section 2255 motion.
June 15, 2015: Fourth Circuit affirms that denial.
June 2016: Successive motion authorized.
January 2023: District court denies the successive motion.
October 28, 2024: Fourth Circuit affirms.
December 23, 2024: Death sentences commuted to life without the possibility of parole.