Biden Commuted Child Killer’s Sentence, Four Months Later He’s Facing the Death Penalty Again

Thomas Sanders, who was convicted of murdering 12-year-old Lexis Roberts in 2014, is once again facing the death penalty after being indicted for first-degree murder by a grand jury in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana. This advancement follows a commutation by President Joe Biden in December 2024, which changed Sanders’ death sentence too life imprisonment along with 36 other inmates.

According to Brad Burget, the district attorney for the area, the jury will first determine Sanders’ guilt before moving to a penalty phase, where they will consider factors to decide between life imprisonment and the death penalty. Burget expressed strong disagreement with Biden’s decision, arguing it re-victimized the families involved and disrespected the deceased victims.

The crime involved Sanders shooting Lexis’s mother,Suellen Roberts,during a trip to the Grand Canyon and afterward murdering Lexis. The FBI apprehended Sanders months after the crime,leading to his conviction. Currently, he is imprisoned in Terre Haute, Indiana, but Burget is seeking his extradition back to Louisiana considering the new charges.


Months after then-President Joe Biden commuted a child murderer’s sentence, the killer is once again facing the death penalty.

Thomas Sanders had been on death row since 2014, when he was convicted for murdering 12-year-old Lexis Roberts, according to KALB-TV in Louisiana.

In December 2024, Sanders was appealing his sentence at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans when Biden commuted his and 36 other inmates‘ sentences to life in prison.

But on Monday, a grand jury in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana, indicted Sanders for first-degree murder, according to the Louisiana Radio Network.

Now he faces the death penalty once more.

“The jury in Catahoula will first determine whether or not Mr. Sanders is guilty of first degree murder,” said Brad Burget, the district attorney in Catahoula and Concordia parishes.

“And if they choose to find him guilty of first degree murder, then it will move to a penalty phase and the jury will hear aggravating and also mitigating circumstances. And based on that, they’ll have to make the decision whether or not it’s a life imprisonment or the death penalty,” he said.

Burget spoke candidly about Biden’s decision to commute Sanders’s sentence.

“I couldn’t disagree with him more,” Burget said “I think it just victimizes the family once again to go through the ordeal of having a trial and reliving this horrible event that happened to them. And also it just disrespects the victim.”

In 2014, Sanders was sentenced to death for the murder of 12-year-old Lexis Roberts, according to an FBI news release.

Sanders was dating Roberts’s mother, Suellen, when he took them both on a vacation to the Grand Canyon in 2010.

On their way back to Nevada, Sanders pulled off the road and shot Suellen to death.

Sanders then drove Lexis across the country to a wooded area near Catahoula Parish, where he shot the girl four times, cut her throat, and left her body.

The FBI arrested him months later, before he was convicted in a Louisiana federal court.

Sanders is currently at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, but Burget wants him extradited back to Louisiana, according to KALB-TV.

“I think the brutal nature of what he did, the fact that he was engaged in a second degree kidnapping of the child, and also the fact that he killed more than one person or had the intent to kill more than one person and did so — I think those would be extreme aggravating circumstances when a Catahoula Parish jury would certainly consider the death penalty,” Burget said.




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