A former drug dealer convicted in the stabbing death of a Mount Vernon woman will no longer be put to death.
Thomas Morocco Hager is one of 37 federal prisoners to have their death sentences commuted today (Monday) by President Joe Biden.
Hager, 51, will now serve life without parole for the killing of 19-year-old Barbara White, who was stabbed 82 times inside her Mount Vernon apartment in 1993.
After shooting two rival drug dealers from the Ely Place gang in D.C., Hager had gone into hiding at a Maryland apartment, according to court documents.
Hager feared his location would be outed, however, after White — who had formerly dated a member of the gang and was friends with Hager’s girlfriend — visited the residence.
On Nov. 29, 1993, Hager and two other men arrived at White’s Mount Vernon apartment and, after being invited in, bound and gagged her. After ordering her into her bathtub, the three men repeatedly stabbed White with knives from her kitchen.
The three men then left, leaving White’s then-13-month-old daughter alone in the apartment. White’s body was later discovered by her father.
The other two men, Lonnie Barrett Jr. and Arlington Johnson Jr., were arrested in 2005. They later testified against Hager at trial, with each man receiving a life sentence.
Hager was convicted and sentenced to death in 2007, with federal prosecutors alleging that he had killed five others in D.C during the 1990s.
Hager previously received an 87-year sentence in 2001 after being found guilty of first-degree murder for an unrelated killing. He is currently incarcerated at a high-security prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
In a statement, Biden expressed concern that the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump will resume federal executions, which had mostly paused under the current administration.
I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system.
Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.
Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss.
But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level. In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.
Death sentences remain in place for only three federal prisoners: Dzhokar Tsarnaev, who was convicted in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; Dylann Roof, who was convicted of killing nine people in a 2015 shooting at a South Carolina church; and Robert Bowers, who was convicted of killing 11 people in the 2018 shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue.
