On the 4th of July in 2020, an 11-year-old named Davon McNeal left a vehicle in Washington, DC, heading towards a basement apartment. Tragically, he was fatally shot by a man. This incident has resurfaced, impacting one of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees and leading the President to withdraw support for the nominee.
As the new year commenced, President Joe Biden renewed the nominations of judges whose appointments had lapsed. However, Judge Todd Edelman, previously nominated for the US District Court for the District of Columbia in 2022, was excluded from the resubmissions. His nomination had faced prolonged delays in the Senate due to a campaign led by Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) against his confirmation.
The senator objected to a choice made by Edelman in 2020, amid the national health crisis. In May of that year, Christian Wingfield, a felon facing two weapons charges while in a DC jail awaiting trial, filed a motion seeking release due to the pandemic. Citing his asthma and heightened risk, he sought to be released. Initially, another judge rejected his request based on a government objection. However, it was later revealed that the government had not filed any opposition, marking an error in the decision.
Wingfield’s legal representatives resubmitted the request, and on this occasion, it was presented to Edelman, a judge in the Superior Court, who approved the plea. During that period, authorities aimed to decrease the jail population and enable non-violent offenders to await their trials in their residences. Edelman mandated electronic monitoring for Wingfield, and he was subsequently released to his home.
After three months, he attended a barbecue with three other individuals, during which one of them discharged a firearm. A stray bullet from that weapon struck and fatally wounded McNeal. In the subsequent weeks, the police apprehended all four men.
Despite acknowledging that Wingfield was not the one who fired the weapon and, although armed, did not discharge it, prosecutors pressed charges against him due to his association with the group. Wingfield opted to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter, resulting in a sentence of over nine years in jail.
