this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2025
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Summary

A West Virginia couple, Jeanne Kay Whitefeather and Donald Lantz, received prison sentences of 215 and 160 years, respectively, for forcing their five adopted Black children into slave labor.

Authorities discovered the abuse after a welfare check revealed children locked in a shed without water or sanitation.

The couple, charged with human trafficking, child neglect, and forced labor, targeted the children because of their race.

The court ordered them to pay $280,000 in restitution each.

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[–] Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 88 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Watch donald pardon them and give them a job doing ethics or bs. He wants outrage

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Donnie just found his new education secretary.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago

That asshole would probably put them in as Secretary of Labor.

[–] Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

Lol "I'd like to formally announce the new head of The Office of Child Care..."

[–] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 2 days ago (2 children)

As long as this was a state affair, he can't legally pardon them.

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

All he has to do is apply sufficient political pressure upon the governor to make the pardon happen. It's more work for a state level concern but ultimately it's plausible if the current Republican administration is sufficiently motivated

[–] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 12 hours ago

Excellent point.

[–] Mishmash2000@lemmy.nz 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Who will stop him? Who's going to die on that hill? He ignores Judges orders already right? I mean, I don't know the system that well but if he just does what he wants and ignores those that usually have the power to say no, then what?

[–] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 days ago

Yeah, I agree. That's why I inserted "legally." That said, I fully expect us to see this happen soon.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (4 children)

How did this get 20 upvotes, 0 downvotes, and not a single person pointing out that this conviction was at the state level, something the POTUS unambiguously lacks any power to pardon?

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 30 points 2 days ago (2 children)

unambiguously lacks any power

Ten years ago, I would agree. Now we're seeing the trump administration openly oppose federal judicial rulings and even telling the court they are "not showing respect" to the Executive. We're seeing Musk say he will back a primary challenger for any elected official that doesn't follow trump's orders, with the most recent being musk offering to openly buy votes for $100 in support of his candidate. Any one of these ten year ago would have been unambiguously in violation of law and tradition and dealt with.

There is no "unambiguously lacks any power" anymore.

[–] Schadrach 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Our governor might be a GOP dipshit, but he's...less on the Trump train than some others. I think he got shocked out of it a bit when the whole "stop all payments" thing first started less than 48 hours before the Medicaid disbursement was supposed to hit and he was needing to have emergency "how do we keep Medicaid going" meetings before the injunction against it. He can't be totally off the Trump train if he wants reelected because this is a hard red safe state in the way it used to be a hard blue safe state before fucking Gore of all people fucked it up.

I don't think he'd pardon someone just because Trump asked, barring Trump making a significant threat to force the issue.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don’t think he’d pardon someone just because Trump asked, barring Trump making a significant threat to force the issue.

Would trump have to use force? His minions are in control of the Treasury. It doesn't matter that it would be illegal for trump to mess with state funding from the federal government. He's already shown he is defying court orders which take week to arrive at anyway.

How bad would your state be if trump cut off all federal funding overnight?

[–] Schadrach 2 points 1 day ago

He could do that, but it would become very public very quickly and that's more a problem for your side politically when you do it to a state where your side is in power in general.

He can threaten Maine and Maines governor like that because they're a blue state and turning on them doesn't make his base realize he could do the same to them in the same way because they're the other team. Doing the same to WV would read as a betrayal to his own followers precisely because they're solid red and we're not far enough down the "and then they came for..." list for that to be a safe move politically yet.

[–] Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Because rules/law/ethics matter to the current 'administration'..?

[–] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago

Many people are not fully aware of the extent of pardon powers.

[–] LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 0 points 2 days ago

Maybe next time wait a few minutes before reacting?