Sex Traffickers, Murderers, Terrorists Got Stimulus Checks While in Prison
Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev also received checks
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Convicted murderers and sex traffickers who received COVID-19 stimulus checks are being sued by the federal government who ordered them to use funds to pay their victims’ families, court documents say.
It was revealed that Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev received a $1,400 stimulus check under a $1.9 trillion bill signed by President Joe Biden last March.
Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, offered an amendment on the floor at the time to block checks from prisoners but failed the party-line vote, 49-50.
The previous bills lacked any language barring imprisoned felons from receiving stimulus payments.
“Senate Democrats blocked my amendment to prevent prisoners, like the Boston Marathon bomber, from receiving government stimulus checks,” Cassidy said in a statement last week.
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“It is an insult to victims.”
On Wednesday, Federal officials in Massachusetts filed a motion urging the court to order Tsarnaev to hand over the $1,400 COVID relief money in his inmate trust account to give his victims.
Tsarnaev was one of many prisoners who are being sued by the federal government as part of efforts to ensure the stimulus checks are used to pay their court-ordered restitution.
Below is the list of prisoners who received stimulus checks:
Anthony Robinson, a prisoner at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, is serving a life sentence for murdering two people. He was sued by federal officials in August and ordered to relinquish his stimulus money to be used as payment toward the thousands he still owed in restitution.
Yancey Myers, a prisoner at the Federal Correctional Institution in Gilmer, West Virginia, is serving 30 years behind bars for supplying a fatal dose of heroin to a 23-year-old North Dakota man. In August, a judge declared that Myers’ stimulus money was not exempt from being seized by the government and ordered him to turn over more than $1,000 to go toward restitution.
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Jonathan Dickerson, an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas, is serving 20 years behind bars for supplying a fatal dose of fentanyl to a 21-year-old Maryland woman. He was ordered to hand over his $1,400 stimulus check to go toward restitution in August.
James Johnson, an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution Milan in Michigan, is serving ten years in prison for possessing stolen firearms. He was ordered to turn over more than $1,100 of his stimulus money to go toward restitution in August.
John Lattaker, an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in Pollock, Louisiana, is serving 30 years in prison for armed robbery. He was ordered to relinquish his stimulus money to go toward restitution in September.
Robert Carey Evans, an inmate at Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, who is serving ten years in prison for possessing child pornography, was ordered to turn over his stimulus money to go toward restitution in September.
Larry Norwood, an inmate at United States Penitentiary Coleman in Florida who is serving 19 years for sex trafficking, was ordered to relinquish his stimulus money to pay down his nearly $200,000 in restitution in October.
Omni Walton, an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in Forrest City, Arkansas, who is serving 19 years behind bars for armed bank robbery, was ordered to turn over his stimulus money to go toward restitution in November.
