Rebecca Zeljko
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday against the nomination of a judge who allowed a serial rapist who identified as a woman to be sent to a women’s prison.
President Joe Biden nominated Sarah Netburn filed a motion with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, but the nomination was dismissed blocked by the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 10-11 vote. In August 2022, Netburn Recommended transfer of prisoner William McClain, known by the alias July Justine Shelby, to a women’s prison despite his past history of sex crimes, According to to the Washington Free Beacon.
Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia broke with his Democratic colleagues and voted against Netburn.
Absolutely FIRE question line from @SenTedCruz today 🔥🔥🔥 bravo!
“Do they have the right not to place in their cell a 188 cm tall man who is a recidivist and serial rapist?” photo:twitter.com/TSzIMjdmmi
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) May 23, 2024
“So you took a 6-foot-1, serial rapist, serial child rapist, with male genitalia, and said, ‘You know, I wish I was in a women’s prison,’” Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas told a House impeachment hearing. hearing about Netburn being approved by the court in May. “And your response was, ‘That sounds great to me.’”
McClain was convicted in 1994 of molesting a 9-year-old boy and raping a 17-year-old girl, the Beacon reported. McClain was released in 2015 and then convicted in 2017 of distributing child pornography.
McClain reportedly had sex harassed female prisoners in a women’s prison prison– reports Beacon.
Federal prison officials opposed the transfer, but Netburn said fears the transfer would be “traumatic and potentially dangerous” were “overblown,” the Beacon reported.
When Cruz confronted him during a committee hearing, Netburn referred to the accused man as “she” and stated that “every person incarcerated has the right to feel safe in their place of residence.”
“It’s clear from your record that your political ideology is far more important than the rights of the women you’ve put in danger,” Cruz said during the committee hearing. “I believe you’re a radical. I believe you have no right to be a judge.”
– – –
Rebecca Zeljko is a reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Senate Committee” by Senator Ted Cruz.
