President Joe Biden commutes death sentence of man who murdered Columbus police officer

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Among the death sentences commuted Monday by President Joe Biden was that for a man who confessed to fatally shooting a Columbus police officer during a bank robbery nearly 20 years ago.

Daryl Lawrence, 49, was on death row after being convicted by a Columbus-based jury in federal court of murdering Officer Bryan Hurst and of staging multiple bank robberies over two years. Biden commuted the sentences of Lawrence and of 36 others after putting a moratorium on capital punishment in 2021.

“I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement. “These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”

Lawrence will now spend the rest of his life in federal prison without the opportunity for parole.

Former Franklin County prosecutor Ron O'Brien handled Lawrence's case and worked to get it transferred to federal court because of harsher penalties there.

"It is a blatant abuse of the president's clemency power to pardon cop killers, child rapists who killed their victim and mass murderers," O'Brien wrote to NBC4. "Daryl Lawrence was prosecuted in federal court by me and Dave DeVillers rather than in state court in the mistaken belief a death sentence would be imposed and carried out. President Biden was manipulated by his staff to make this ill-conceived decision."

Lawrence ran into a bank at the corner of East Broad Street and McNaughten Road the morning of Jan. 6, 2005, holding a semiautomatic pistol, according to media reports. Hurst, 33, was working there on special duty shortly after the birth of his daughter, with his wife, also a law enforcement officer, in between jobs.

Police say Lawrence got into a gun battle almost immediately with Hurst, who took cover behind the teller's counter. Lawrence leaned over and fired a shot at point-blank range, then fled. Lawrence, who was struck by gunshots twice, including in the hand, was spotted later that week at a hospital in Washington, D.C., then traced back to Columbus, where he was arrested when police responded to a domestic disturbance call at his girlfriend's residence.

Questioned by a Columbus detective and an FBI agent, Lawrence gave a taped confession. DeVillers, the federal prosecutor in the case, told NBC4 that Lawrence had shot others in his earlier robberies and that he had used the stolen funds to attend sports events and stay in luxury hotels.

The jury that convicted him deliberated two extra days before sentencing him to death, with the sentence being upheld after an appeal because the jury came back with a life sentence on one of the two death specifications at trial.

"President Biden’s decision corrects the inconsistent verdicts and imposes the life sentence the jury already found," said Lawrence's attorneys, Kort Gatterdam and Diane Menashe. "Further, the death penalty has never been found to be a deterrent and it is disproportionately used against African Americans."

Family members, however, had called the death penalty a release. Hurst's widow, Marissa, said it sent the message that killing an officer "is something that is not going to be tolerated." And Hurst's parents were frustrated to learn of the commuted sentence, with O'Brien saying he was bothered that he was the one who had to notify the parents rather than the White House or Justice Department.

"They've waited a long time for what they perceive to be justice out of this incident," said Franklin County Chief Deputy Jim Gilbert, a police academy classmate of Hurst's who remains in contact with his family.

Marissa Hurst was part of an Oval Office ceremony in 2006 where Bryan received the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor. The case remained the last time a person was sentenced to death for killing a police officer in Franklin County as recently as 2019, when Quentin Smith avoided the death penalty and was sentenced to life without parole in the deaths of two Westerville police officers.

The local lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police called commuting the sentence an "inexcusable affront" to Hurst's memory.

"Bryan made the ultimate sacrifice, and this decision undermines the justice that was rightfully served for his murder," said lodge President Brian Steel, a Columbus police lieutenant.

Lawrence is imprisoned at the federal death row facility in Indiana, with Biden acting to get in front of Donald Trump taking office for a second term in January. During his first term, Trump's administration completed 13 executions, the most of any president in modern history.