Biden’s HUD Nominee Sought Leniency for a Wife-Beating Democrat Judge Who Went on to Murder His Wife
Richard Moorhead
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The Ohio Democratic Congresswoman Joe Biden has slated for the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development called for a judge convicted of violently beating his wife to be given clemency in sentencing. In 2015, Marcia Fudge provided a glowing recommendation to Lance Mason, a Democrat judge and state legislator who murdered his wife three years later.
Joe Biden is yet to be finally certified as the victor of the 2020 presidential election, but that hasn’t prevented him from selecting a shadow cabinet. Biden announced Fudge as his tentative pick for the Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday night, with the selection of the Ohio Congresswoman coming after Democrats called for Biden to select more black cabinet members.
Normally nominees for Housing and Urban Development are easily confirmed, but Fudge has a concerning track record that involves asking for legal clemency for a Cleveland judge who would go on to murder his wife.
Cuyahoga County judge and former Ohio State Senator Lance Mason was convicted of a particularly brutal attack on his then-wife in 2015, breaking her bones and even biting her. He used his connections with Fudge to secure a sweetheart deal for a particularly aggravated assault, serving only nine months in prison for a violent crime that would’ve normally merited a sentence of several years.
Mason would go on to murder his wife in 2018, stabbing her over fifty times in front of their daughters. He is now serving life in prison.
The disgraced Democrat judge would probably still be in prison for his first violent felony conviction, with his victim’s life spared, if not for Fudge’s generous appeal for leniency. “The behavior Lance displayed … is out of character and totally contrary to everything I know about him,” Fudge wrote of the judge turned violent felon in 2015. “Lance accepts full responsibility for his actions and has assured me that something like this will never happen again. The Lance T. Mason I know is a kind, intelligent man and loyal friend.”
Fudge’s decision to vouch for the character of a future murderer- whose crime could have been prevented if he was properly sentenced for his first felony- could derail her Senate confirmation, or even cause Biden to withdraw her nomination entirely. It’s possible the so-called “president elect’s” transition team failed to conduct a thorough background check on the longtime Democrat politician’s track record.
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