December 24th 2024.
President Joe Biden has made a decision to commute the sentences of 37 out of the 40 individuals on federal death row. This means that their punishments will be converted to life imprisonment. This decision comes just weeks before president-elect Donald Trump, who supports expanding capital punishment, takes office.
The move spares the lives of those who have been convicted of various crimes such as killing police and military officers, committing crimes on federal land, participating in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, and killing guards or prisoners in federal facilities. However, three federal inmates will still face execution. These inmates are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of life Synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history.
In a statement, President Biden said that he has dedicated his career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system. He also mentioned that he is commuting the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. This decision is consistent with the moratorium that his administration has imposed on federal executions, except for cases involving terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.
The reaction to this decision was strong, with both supporters and opponents expressing their opinions. A spokesperson for Trump called the decision abhorrent and stated that these are some of the worst killers in the world. On the other hand, Heather Turner, whose mother was killed in a robbery, criticized the decision on social media, saying that President Biden did not consider the victims of these crimes. She also expressed her frustration with the broken judicial system and called Biden's decision a gross abuse of power.
Some of Roof's victims, however, supported Biden's decision to leave him on death row. Michael Graham, whose sister was killed by Roof, emphasized the lack of remorse and simmering white nationalism in the US as reasons why Roof should remain on death row. He also stated that this was a crime against a race of people who were simply attending Bible study, and it didn't matter who was there, only that they were black.
It is important to note that the Biden administration had announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment in 2021 to study the protocols used. This suspension of executions was in place during Biden's term. However, Biden had promised to go even further on the issue in the past, pledging to end federal executions without any exceptions. But this promise did not appear on his re-election website before he left the presidential race in July.
President Biden's statement regarding the commutation of federal death sentences highlighted his condemnation of these murderers and his empathy for the victims and their families. He also took a political jab at Trump, stating that he cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that he halted. Trump, who takes office on January 20, has frequently advocated for expanding executions and even called for the death penalty for those caught selling drugs. He also promised to execute drug and human smugglers and praised China's harsher treatment of drug peddlers.
During his first term as president, Trump also pushed for the death penalty for drug dealers. Under his administration, there were 13 federal executions, the most under any president in modern history. The final three executions occurred after the election in November 2020, making it the first time federal prisoners were put to death by a lame-duck president since 1889.
Advocacy groups had been pressuring President Biden to take action and make it more difficult for Trump to increase the use of capital punishment for federal inmates. The announcement of the commutations also comes after Biden commuted the sentences of approximately 1500 people released from prison during the COVID-19 pandemic and 39 others convicted of non-violent crimes. This was the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
Furthermore, Biden's decision to commute federal death sentences comes less than two weeks after he granted a pardon to his son Hunter on federal gun and tax charges, sparking an uproar in Washington. This pardon also raised questions about whether he would issue pre-emptive pardons for administration officials and allies who could potentially be targeted by Trump's second administration.
The timing of Biden's decision also coincides with his planned visit to Italy next month, where he will meet with Pope Francis. The Pope has been vocal about his opposition to the death penalty and has called for prayers for US death row inmates in hopes that their sentences would be commuted. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has long advocated for an end to the death penalty, praised Biden's decision and stated that it moves the country closer to building a culture of life.
Martin Luther King III, who urged Biden to change the death sentences, also commended the president's decision, saying that he has taken meaningful and lasting action to acknowledge and remedy the death penalty's racist roots and persistent unfairness. Madeline Cohen, an attorney for Norris Holder, one of the federal death row inmates whose sentence was commuted, stated that his case exemplifies the racial bias and arbitrariness that led to the commutation of federal death sentences. Holder, who is black, was sentenced by an all-white jury.
[This article has been trending online recently and has been generated with AI. Your feed is customized.]
[Generative AI is experimental.]
