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Sometimes trying to ice the kicker backfires, and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights found that out the hard way in a 38-31 loss to Illinois on Saturday. With Rutgers clinging to a one-point lead and 14 seconds to play in the fourth quarter, Illinois lined up for a potential game-winning 58-yard field-goal attempt into the wind. Just as Illinois snapped the ball, Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano called a timeout in an effort to ice Illinois kicker David Olano. The kick, which did not count because of the timeout, badly missed. Upon seeing how poorly the field-goal attempt went, Illinois decided to put its offense back on the field for a 4th-and-13 play. It not only worked, but it resulted in a game-winning touchdown with four seconds to play in regulation. Have a look. PAT BRYANT HOUSE CALL He scores on fourth down with 4 second left for @Illinifootball !!️ #B1GFootball on Peacock pic.twitter.com/7VmxZztAqw That is quarterback Luke Altmeyer finding Pat Bryant for a 40-yard touchdown to win the game. Bryant finished the game with 197 yards on seven catches. That win lifts Illinois to an 8-3 record and gives the Illini eight wins in a season for just the fourth time since the 2000 season . You should still expect your defense to be able to make a stop on 4th-and-13, but Schiano is probably going to have a lot of regret after that outcome. A 58-yard kick is difficult under any circumstances, especially for a college kicker into the wind (as this kick was). Sometimes you just have to trust that they might miss it and not try to overthink it.

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Richard Parsons, one of corporate America's most prominent Black executives who held top posts at Time Warner and Citigroup, died Thursday. He was 76. Parsons, who died at his Manhattan home, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2015 and cited "unanticipated complications" from the disease for cutting back on work a few years later. The financial services company Lazard, where Parsons was a longtime board member, confirmed his death. Parsons' friend Ronald Lauder told The New York Times that the cause of death was cancer. Parsons stepped down Dec. 3 from the boards of Lazard and Lauder's company, Estée Lauder, citing health reasons. He had been on Estée Lauder's board for 25 years. "Dick was an American original, a colossus bestriding the worlds of business, media, culture, philanthropy, and beyond," Ronald Lauder said in a statement on behalf of the Lauder family. David Zaslav, the CEO of Time Warner successor Warner Bros. Discovery, hailed Parsons as a "great mentor and friend" and a "tough and brilliant negotiator, always looking to create something where both sides win." "All who got a chance to work with him and know him saw that unusual combination of great leadership with integrity and kindness," Zaslav said, calling him "one of the great problem solvers this industry has ever seen." Parsons, a Brooklyn native who started college at 16, built a track record of steering big companies through tough times. He returned Citigroup to profitability after turmoil from the global financial crisis and helped restore Time Warner after its much-maligned acquisition by internet provider America Online. Parsons was named to the board of CBS in September 2018 but resigned a month later because of illness. Parsons said in a statement at the time that he was already dealing with multiple myeloma when he joined the board, but "unanticipated complications have created additional new challenges." He said his doctors advised him to cut back on his commitments to ensure recovery. "Dick's storied career embodied the finest traditions of American business leadership," Lazard said in a statement. The company, where Parsons was a board member from 2012 until this month, praised his "unmistakable intelligence and his irresistible warmth." "Dick was more than an iconic leader in Lazard's history — he was a testament to how wisdom, warmth, and unwavering judgment could shape not just companies, but people's lives," the company said. "His legacy lives on in the countless leaders he counseled, the institutions he renewed, and the doors he opened for others." Parsons was known as a skilled negotiator, a diplomat and a crisis manager. Although he was with Time Warner through its difficulties with AOL, he earned respect for the company and rebuilt its relations with Wall Street. He streamlined Time Warner's structure, pared debt and sold Warner Music Group and a book publishing division. He also fended off a challenge from activist investor Carl Icahn in 2006 to break up the company and helped Time Warner reach settlements with investors and regulators over questionable accounting practices at AOL. Parsons joined Time Warner as president in 1995 after serving as chairman and chief executive of Dime Bancorp Inc., one of the largest U.S. thrift institutions. In 2001, after AOL used its fortunes as the leading provider of Internet access in the U.S. to buy Time Warner for $106 billion in stock, Parsons became co-chief operating officer with AOL executive Robert Pittman. In that role, he was in charge of the company's content businesses, including movie studios and recorded music. He became CEO in 2002 with the retirement of Gerald Levin, one of the key architects of that merger. Parsons was named Time Warner chairman the following year, replacing AOL founder Steve Case, who had also championed the combination. The newly formed company's Internet division quickly became a drag on Time Warner. The promised synergies between traditional and new media never materialized. AOL began seeing a reduction in subscribers in 2002 as Americans replaced dial-up connections with broadband from cable TV and phone companies. Parsons stepped down as CEO in 2007 and as chairman in 2008. A year later AOL split from Time Warner and began trading as a separate company, following years of struggles to reinvent itself as a business focused on advertising and content. Time Warner is now owned by AT&T Inc. A board member of Citigroup and its predecessor, Citibank, since 1996, Parsons was named chairman in 2009 at a time of turmoil for the financial institution. Citigroup had suffered five straight quarters of losses and received $45 billion in government aid. Its board had been criticized for allowing the bank to invest so heavily in the risky housing market. Citigroup returned to profit under Parsons, starting in 2010, and would not have a quarterly loss again until the fourth quarter of 2017. Parsons retired from that job in 2012. In 2014 he stepped in as interim CEO of the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers until Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took over later that year. "Dick Parsons was a brilliant and transformational leader and a giant of the media industry who led with integrity and never shied away from a challenge," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. Parsons, a Republican, previously worked as a lawyer for Nelson Rockefeller, a former Republican governor of New York, and in Gerald Ford's White House. Those early stints gave him grounding in politics and negotiations. He also was an economic adviser on President Barack Obama's transition team. Parsons, whose love of jazz led to co-owning a Harlem jazz club, also served as Chairman of the Apollo Theater and the Jazz Foundation of America. And he held positions on the boards of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the American Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Parsons played basketball at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and received his law degree from Albany Law School in 1971. He is survived by his wife, Laura, and their family.Nebraska's offense shines as Huskers take 2 touchdown lead over Wisconsin into the half

Bank of America signs again with FIFA for US-hosted Club World Cup that still has no TV dealsSOMETHING odd happens if you do an internet search on what occurred in the sporting year. The first two things that came up for me were, 2024 in review: The sports business year in deals and Annual Review of Football Finance 2024. So when you ask Google a question about sport, the first thing on its mind is money . Unsettling, if you ask me, although it does point to something beautiful — that TV people have cottoned on to the fact sport is the only thing they can rely upon to bring the world together, watching the same thing at the same time, riding the same emotional rollercoaster. They love this because they can sell the advertising space around it. We love it because, well, we just love it. Year after year, sport delivers in ways we knew it would, and in ways we could never have imagined. Take Luke Littler . Who’d have thought 2024 would begin with an extraordinary teenager dominating the back, and front, pages. Think about it. How many times in your life does sport have you shaking your head in disbelief, muttering something to yourself like, “Wow. Incredible”? Littler’s story has been a sporting fairytale, except that’s not quite right. Referring to sports stories as fairytales is too much of a cliche. Also, it wasn’t quite a fairytale, was it? In a proper fairytale, the 16-year-old prodigy would have turned up, shocked every opponent winning every round, and gone on to win the title. But no, this is sport, so there’s not necessarily a neat tying up of the tale. He finished second. Still brilliant, incredible, inspiring and moving. But not quite a fairytale. It was like Cinderella finding the slipper fitted but also that she couldn’t immediately marry the prince , as he already had a girlfriend, and had to sort that out first. Her day would surely come, as Littler’s did in a triumphant year for him that is likely to end for him as dramatically as it started. It’s the kinks in the sporting stories which make the magic. While almost every film or TV series ends up with the good guys winning, in sport you can never be quite sure. And here lies the magic. There are those saying Pep is now a diminished figure. But I don’t see it like that I wouldn’t blame Manchester City fans for not much enjoying the mysterious magic of sport just now. This time last year they were enjoying another brisk stroll towards yet another Premier League title. And as recently as two months ago we all thought we were in for more of the same this season. But this is sport, and sport doesn’t work like that. It’s now one win in 13 games for City . Unthinkable. Two months ago, Manchester City failing to beat Everton at home would have been unthinkable in itself. Headline news . But tellingly, the morning after their draw on Boxing Day it barely merited mention in the sports bulletins. Just another bad day for struggling City. There are those saying Pep is now a diminished figure. But I don’t see it like that. He’s gone right up in my estimation. As a winner, I found him angry, irascible and generally hard to like. A serious dose of defeat has made him much more appealing. He’s been humble and intelligent . Rather than railing at the world blaming everyone else, he’s been almost alarmingly candid about the extent to which he blames himself and what he sees as his own shortcomings. After the draw against Everton, he said simply: “Life is not easy. Sport is not easy.” I loved that. He’s right. Sport, like life, can be beautiful and it can be terrible. It’s rarely a fairytale after all. In the heady days of summer we had the Euros and England’s not uneventful march to the final . It’s funny, but in my mind it’s all reduced down to a handful of key moments. Jude Bellingham’s overhead kick vs Slovakia ; the look on Ollie Watkins’ face after his winner against the Dutch . And then in the final, Spain’s winner which definitely looked offside but definitely wasn’t, and then the goalmouth scramble at the other end right at the death. If it had gone in, all might have been different. But it didn’t. Same old. And before long Gareth was on his way. Enough said. Next time. As for performance of the tournament, I’m going to have to give it to Ronaldo . And here I mean “performance” in the sense that a toddler having a tantrum might be said to be “putting in a performance”. No disrespect to the great man — he’s a hardworking genius who deserves every bit of success he’s had. But his man-child performance in Portugal’s round of 16 Euros knockout match against Slovenia will live long in the memory — taking every free kick, missing a penalty, the tears , the inevitable triumph. It was a one-man show for the ages. By the way, on VAR, is it just me or has it got a bit better? We’re certainly talking about it less, but that might be more to do with us getting bored of moaning and the fight draining out of us. The jury remains out. Let’s see what 2025 brings. In F1, good things have been happening. It was great to see Lewis win again at Silverstone. But also refreshing to see so many new young drivers making their way, and so many fans brought to the sport by the Netflix documentary, Drive To Survive . When TV captures the drama of sport so brilliantly, it’s a fabulous thing. But it has to be that way round — because if sport starts delivering drama for the purposes of television, it could devalue everything. I’m not saying this is what was behind, say, George Russell’s spat with Max Verstappen , but I did start to wonder. We can’t have these brilliant fly-on-the-wall series turning into sports versions of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. In sport we don’t need to confect drama. There’s plenty there already to be getting on with. Pick your 2024 golden moments. I’ll go for Keely Hodgkinson in the 800m and Bryony Page on the trampoline Sport must be king; the requirements of TV must come second. When TV starts calling all the shots, things get daft. Take the Olympics. An absolute triumph, sandwiched between the most absurdly overblown made-for-television opening and closing ceremonies. Good job that the sport which came in between was so unrelentingly brilliant. Pick your golden moments. I’ll go for Keely Hodgkinson in the 800m, Bryony Page on the trampoline and the GB women in the quadruple sculls. They trailed the Dutch for 1,950 metres but beat them to gold on the very final stroke . Awesome. In 2024 we saw some legends of their sports bow out. It’s always moving to see athletes we first saw as kids come to dominate their worlds before finally, tearfully — for us as well as them — bowing out. Rafa Nadal and Andy Murray left tennis. Jimmy Anderson played his last cricket for England . Mark Cavendish finished cycling in triumph. With their bodies in various states of disrepair, they called it a day. But what shone out from each of this quartet was something which years of elite competition often knocks out of sportsmen and women — their sheer love for their sports. This is rarer than you might think. With some athletes (see Ronaldo above) you get the feeling they’re in it as much for love of themselves as for the love of the game. And I’ve met many retired footballers who, while still fans of the game, can’t think of much worse than having to get out there and play again, week in, week out. But with Nadal, Murray, Anderson and Cavendish, you sensed that if their bodies allowed it, they’d carry on for ever. If only they could. But others will come to fill their shoes. More fairytales will (almost) be written. This next sporting year will, one way or another, put us through the mill all over again. Bring it on. Can’t wait.The Houston Astros have traded one of their homegrown stars in a major four-player trade with the Chicago Cubs , the team announced Friday . The Astros and the Cubs agreed to a deal sending three-time All-Star Kyle Tucker to the North Side of Chicago for third baseman Isaac Paredes , right-hander Hayden Wesneski , and third-base prospect Cam Smith . Coming into the offseason, a Tucker trade was almost unthinkable, though rumors began to surface during this week's MLB Winter Meetings , and they continued to pick up steam from there. Tucker is a year away from free agency and, rather than let him play out his walk year, the Astros used the outfielder as a trade chip to address multiple roster needs. Tucker, 28 in January, authored a .289/.408/.585 slash line with 23 homers and more walks (56) than strikeouts (54) in 78 games around a broken shin in 2024. He is a strong right field defender and basestealer as well. Tucker has been at least a 4.7-WAR player in each of the last four seasons. That's All-Star production year in, year out. With a $16 million projected price tag through arbitration in 2025, Tucker is a bargain, and he has indicated he is open a long-term extension in the past. "Like I've always said, we're always open to have those conversations, whether it happens now or a little later or whatever it may be," he told MLB.com last spring training . From the Cubs' standpoint, the addition of Tucker may presage a trade of Cody Bellinger out of Chicago. Bellinger has been linked to the Yankees , who are seeking a left-handed outfield bat after the free-agent departure of Juan Soto . The Yankees -- who did acquire All-Star closer Devin Williams on Friday -- were also involved in the Tucker trade discussions, but the Cubs turned out to be better positioned to make a deal with Houston. On the Houston side, the addition of Paredes would seem to indicate that free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman will not be returning to the Astros. Paredes, who turns 26 in February, is coming off a 2024 season for the Cubs and Rays in which he slashed a combined .238/.346/.393 (112 OPS+) with 19 home runs in 153 total games played. For his career, he owns an OPS+ of 113 with a WAR of 8.8 across parts of five MLB seasons. Paredes isn't eligible for free agency until after the 2027 season. Wesneski, 27, has on his ledger 22 major-league starts and 46 relief appearances spread across parts of three seasons. Over that span, he's put up an ERA of 3.93 with an FIP of 4.74. He's under team control through the 2029 season. The 21-year-old Smith was the Cubs' top draft choice in June -- the 14th overall pick out of Florida State. A fast riser, Smith in his lone professional season saw action at three different rungs of the Cubs' system, including a brief taste of Double-A. In 32 total games, Smith batted .313/.396/.609 with 16 extra-base hits.

Loews corp director Anthony Welters sells $99,484 in stockLEDE WITH EMERSON At one point in time, Gary had over 10,000 vacant properties. In February, the city launched an initiative to demolish properties in the Aetna neighborhood, including Aetna Elementary School, which close 20 years ago. Melton at the time said they planned to address blight “neighborhood by neighborhood.” He told the Times in a recent interview the plan is to not only focus on the downtown corridors, but to branch out as well. And their plans include more than just demolitions. Rehabilitating buildings or saving portions of historical structures makes up a large portion of potential projects as well. “It's not just about demolishing it's also figuring out, how do we hold folks accountable so they can own up to their apartment, to their properties,” said Melton. QUOTE HERE FROM NOTRE DAME ABOUT DEMOS /STEFANOS What to do with Gary’s derelict school buildings isn’t just a matter of logistics, as the owners of the Dunbar-Pulaski Middle School have discovered firsthand, but a potentially thorny political question. The school building on East 19th avenue had lain vacant for just over seven years when the Harvey, Illinois-based American Kitchen Delights purchased the property from the GCSC in August of 2022. The company, which paid $35,000 for the parcel, announced plans to turn the building into a commercial kitchen that would supply products to local restaurants and supermarkets. It said that the facility would create up to 200 jobs. When the company sought to get the property rezoned, however, it was met with stiff resistance from many of the property’s neighbors. Lawns across Gary’s Pulaski neighborhood soon sported signs reading “NO commercial zoning 4th District.” The backlash prompted American Kitchen Delights to change course. By the following summer, the company had amended its plans for the site to include at least six apartment units alongside a smaller commercial kitchen. This mixed-use scheme would require the approval of a planned unit development (PUD), an area with unique zoning rules set out in a city ordinance. Another year later, the project stalled. Dwayne Carter, American Kitchen Delights’ vice president of operations, told The Times that his company has completed the work of clearing out the school building’s interior, but there has been no movement on the PUD plans. He laid blame on Gary executive director of redevelopment Chris Harris. “We couldn’t get him on the phone,” Carter said. Harris, who was hired to head the department by then-Mayor Jerome Prince in October 2023, told The Times that his office has made clear to Dunbar-Pulaski’s owners that it will not support the proposed PUD or any other non-residential use of the site. “We’re definitely open to working with the owner of the property to make sure we have a better fit in the future moving forward,” he said, “But (we) understand that the community has resoundingly spoken loud and clear about their concerns about a PUD and an industrial use.” Carter said that his company, which holds the property through a pair of subsidiaries, has not abandoned the idea of redeveloping the property itself, but has been in touch with a prospective buyer. He said that discussions are at too early a stage to name that party. Harris said that the city would welcome a sale if it paves the way for residential redevelopment of the Dunbar-Pulaski site. The school building’s recent history highlights the challenge of negotiating the sometimes divergent interests of the school district, the city, Gary residents, and private developers. DUAB executive director Peter Miller, who took over the agency in 2021, told The Times that the state-controlled GCSC approached the sale of Dunbar-Pulaski and other shuttered properties with a focus on reducing the district’s liabilities and ameliorating blight. “We had too many buildings and not enough kids. And so how are we going to rectify it?” he said. “Our board would not have been considering how it was reused other than just, ‘Does it make sense? Is this a fair way to get the get the property off of the school's rolls?’” Student enrollment in Gary mirrors its downward trending population. STAT HERE ABOUT ENROLLMENT Melton told The Times that he expects the return of local control to the GCSC to improve coordination between the school district and the city— The mayor appointed one of the newly reconstituted five-member board’s members, and the Gary Common Council appointed another— but stressed the need for more active engagement between both entities and the public going forward. "It's inevitable that because of local control now at the school corporation, there's more flexibility and autonomy where you don't have to go get approval from the state to make simple decisions or to use certain resources,” he said “but it's important that we show collaboration, which was not shown as much in the past.” Melton sees Notre Dame’s design charrette process, which drew large crowds of Gary residents to its listening sessions and preliminary presentation, as a model for future efforts to involve the school buildings’ neighbors in decisions about their reuse. “What you'll notice in a lot of these communities or neighborhoods (is) that people are established and embedded there for 30 or 40 years,” Melton said. “So you want their buy-in, you want their support on what’s going to be across the street or even next door from them.” SUBHEAD: How are other cities dealing with similar challenges? Who has had success? The Center for Community Progress (CCP) is a national organization that works with communities across the country to develop solutions to blight, vacancy and abandonment. They focus on blight prevention, neighborhood revitalization and turning vacant properties into productive use structures. They have worked with more than 150 communities in 30 states since launching in 2010. Matthew Kreis, CCP general counsel, assists communities in identifying and reforming laws and policies that can improve a city’s ability to remedy vacant, deteriorated properties. He said fighting blight can be a particularly difficult challenge, especially in places like Gary. “Gary is not alone. There are other cities that have experienced significant population decline and disinvestment over the years,” said Kreis. “It is going to require a great deal of investment, not just from the city itself, but from a multitude of partners at the regional, state and federal level as well as private investors to see movement."

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday announced that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump , an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office. The move spares the lives of people convicted in killings , including the slayings of police and military officers, people on federal land and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, as well as the killings of guards or prisoners in federal facilities. The decision leaves three federal inmates to face execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of life Synagogue in 2018 , the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history. “I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement . “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.” Reaction was strong, both for and against. A Trump spokesperson called the decision “abhorrent.” “These are among the worst killers in the world and this abhorrent decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones.” said Trump spokesman Steven Cheung. “President Trump stands for the rule of law, which will return when he is back in the White House after he was elected with a massive mandate from the American people.” Heather Turner, whose mother was killed during the 2017 robbery of a Conway, South Carolina, bank, blasted the decision in a social media post, saying Biden didn’t consider the victims of these crimes. “The pain and trauma we have endured over the last 7 years has been indescribable,” Turner wrote on Facebook, describing weeks spent in court in search of justice as “now just a waste of time.” “Our judicial system is broken. Our government is a joke,” she said. “Joe Biden’s decision is a clear gross abuse of power. He, and his supporters, have blood on their hands.” Some of Roof’s victims supported Biden’s decision to leave him on death row. Michael Graham, whose sister Cynthia Hurd was killed by Roof, said Roof’s lack of remorse and simmering white nationalism in the U.S. means Roof is the kind of dangerous and evil person the death penalty is intended for. “This was a crime against a race of people who were doing something all Americans do on a Wednesday night — go to Bible study,” Graham said. “It didn’t matter who was there, only that they were Black.” The Biden administration in 2021 announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment to study the protocols used, which suspended executions during Biden’s term. But Biden actually had promised to go further on the issue in the past, pledging to end federal executions without the caveats for terrorism and hate-motivated, mass killings. While running for president in 2020, Biden’s campaign website said he would “work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level , and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example.” Similar language didn’t appear on Biden’s reelection website before he left the presidential race in July. “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,” Biden’s statement said. “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.” He took a political jab at Trump, saying, “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.” Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has spoken frequently of expanding executions. In a speech announcing his 2024 campaign , Trump called for those “caught selling drugs to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts.” He later promised to execute drug and human smugglers and even praised China’s harsher treatment of drug peddlers. During his first term as president, Trump also advocated for the death penalty for drug dealers . There were 13 federal executions during Trump’s first term, more than under any president in modern history, and some may have happened fast enough to have contributed to the spread of the coronavirus at the federal death row facility in Indiana. Those were the first federal executions since 2003. The final three occurred after Election Day in November 2020 but before Trump left office the following January, the first time federal prisoners were put to death by a lame-duck president since Grover Cleveland in 1889. Biden faced recent pressure from advocacy groups urging him to act to make it more difficult for Trump to increase the use of capital punishment for federal inmates. The president’s announcement also comes less than two weeks after he commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, and of 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes, the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. The announcement also followed the post-election pardon that Biden granted his son Hunter on federal gun and tax charges after long saying he would not issue one, sparking an uproar in Washington. The pardon also raised questions about whether he would issue sweeping preemptive pardons for administration officials and other allies who the White House worries could be unjustly targeted by Trump’s second administration. Speculation that Biden could commute federal death sentences intensified last week after the White House announced he plans to visit Italy on the final foreign trip of his presidency next month. Biden, a practicing Catholic, will meet with Pope Francis, who recently called for prayers for U.S. death row inmates in hopes their sentences will be commuted. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has long called for an end to the death penalty, said Biden’s decision is a “significant step in advancing the cause of human dignity in our nation” and moves the country “a step closer to building a culture of life.” Martin Luther King III, who publicly urged Biden to change the death sentences, said in a statement shared by the White House that the president “has done what no president before him was willing to do: take meaningful and lasting action not just to acknowledge the death penalty’s racist roots but also to remedy its persistent unfairness.” Madeline Cohen, an attorney for Norris Holder, who faced death for the 1997 fatal shooting of a guard during a bank robbery in St. Louis, said his case “exemplifies the racial bias and arbitrariness that led the President to commute federal death sentences,” Cohen said. Holder, who is Black, was sentenced by an all-white jury.