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Soros-Backed Prosecutor Approves Unusually High Number of Insanity Pleas in Murder Cases

Then-Commonwealth's Attorney-elect Steve Descano on Dec. 17, 2019. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post/Getty Images)

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Tyler O'Neil is senior editor at The Daily Signal and the author of two books: "Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center," and "The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government."

Last week, a man who allegedly shot the founder of a charity 10 times while he lay in bed with his wife got off without a prison sentence—because the prosecutor, backed by groups funded by Hungarian American billionaire George Soros, agreed to let him plead not guilty by reason of insanity.

Gret Glyer had founded DonorSee, a charity platform that allowed donors to support specific people while giving video updates to show the donor’s concrete impact. Joshua Danehower, 37, who had gone on one date with Glyer’s wife Heather about 10 years previously, allegedly broke into the family’s house, snuck into the bedroom, and fired 10 shots into Gret Glyer, leaving his wife a widow and his two young children fatherless.

Due to the plea agreement, however, Danehower will move from a jail cell to a mental health facility. After a year, he will receive a psychological evaluation and may then gain his freedom.

Danehower is far from alone, however. Steve Descano, the commonwealth’s attorney for Fairfax County, Virginia, has overseen at least 10 murder pleas of not guilty by reason of insanity. Mental Health America notes that defendants charged with a felony use the insanity plea in less than 1% of cases, and it only succeeds 25% of the time.

Yet, according to the victims’ rights group Virginians for Safe Communities, fewer than 50 murder cases have been disposed in the last three years, while Descano’s office has begun the insanity plea process for at least 10 murder defendants — around a 1-in-5 ratio.

Descano’s office did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.

Are murder suspects in Fairfax County really over 20 times more insane than felony defendants across the country?

Critics presented an alternative explanation: the bias of Steve Descano.

“Steve Descano’s office allows 1-in-5 murderers to get an insanity plea,” Gizan Glyer, the victim’s sister, told The Daily Signal Tuesday.

“Gret Glyer’s admitted murderer avoiding prison is not an anomaly,” she argued. “It is part of a pattern of corruption and incompetence displayed by the Fairfax Commonwealth Attorney’s office. My family not only fears for our lives, but the lives of our community members.”

“Everyone should know what Descano is getting away with,” she added.

The bereaved sister noted that detectives found a trove of evidence, including “a manifesto, a map of my brother’s whereabouts, and bullet casings at the crime scene that matched bullet casings left at the gun range he visited 3 days after the murder.”

“This all points to a premeditated, targeted murder of Gret,” Gizan Glyer added. Yet, due to the insanity plea, Danehower “can now be released from the mental health facility as early as next year, and every year after that will continue to appeal his release.”

According to NBC4, the psychologist’s report says Danehower came to believe Grett Gyler was part of the “illuminati” and had forced Heather into marrying him, and thought that he had to kill him.

‘The Rogue Prosecutor’ Movement

One expert told The Daily Signal that this trend of increased insanity pleas is “very much par for the course, where essentially you have the prosecutor functioning as another defense attorney, for the defendant, instead of seeking justice for the victims.”

Zack Smith, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation and author of the book “Rogue Prosecutors: How Radical Soros Lawyers Are Destroying America’s Communities,” also noted that Descano represents part of a larger movement, funded by Hungarian American billionaire George Soros.

During his 2019 election, Descano received $659,054 from two PACs funded substantially by Soros—Justice and Public Safety PAC and New Virginia Majority. This sum accounted for more than two-thirds of his approximately $950,000 in overall donations. He received $82,793 from these PACs during his 2023 re-election campaign.

Neither the Justice and Public Safety PAC nor New Virginia Majority responded to The Daily Signal’s requests for comment. The Daily Signal reached out to the Open Society Foundations to see if Soros would comment, but did not receive a response.

While the Justice and Public Safety PAC says it aims to “elect better prosecutors,” Smith wrote that it forms part of “a devious scheme to replace law and order prosecutors with zealots opposed to the death penalty.” In the 30 U.S. cities with the highest murder rates, Smith noted, at least 14 had prosecutors backed or inspired by Soros in 2022.

“Descano has certainly been very aggressive about not prosecuting certain offenders,” Smith told The Daily Signal. Descano has refused to seek the death penalty, even when family members of victims urge him to do so.

Former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares released an investigative report into Descano’s office last October. Among other things, Miyares faulted the attorney for “improper plea agreements,” including falsely stating that victims had agreed to lenient plea agreements.

Descano dismissed the report as “a sad, last-ditch political stunt by a man who’s about to lose an election.” Miyares did lose his re-election campaign in November.

Sean Kennedy, the president of Virginians for Safe Communities, attributed Descano’s “inordinately high rate of granting insanity pleas to murderers” to “incompetence at the law and indifference toward victims and justice.”

“Under Virginia law, simply having a mental illness does not mean you are not criminally responsible,” Kennedy told The Daily Signal. “Signs of premeditation, cover-up, and clear motive all but negate the insanity defense. Virginia jurors should have been allowed to decide the fate of these killers, not Steve Descano and his handpicked shrinks.”

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