President Biden commutes death sentences of 37 federal inmates

President Biden commutes death sentences of 37 federal inmates

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the death sentences of 37 out of 40 federal inmates, replacing their sentences with life imprisonment without parole.

This decision comes amid heightened calls from death penalty opponents urging the president to act before leaving office.

The commutation reflects Biden’s stance on the federal death penalty, which has been under a moratorium throughout his presidency.

The action also stands in stark contrast to former President Donald Trump’s tenure, during which a record number of federal executions were carried out.

The decision leaves only a few individuals, primarily those convicted of heinous acts motivated by hate or terrorism, still facing federal death sentences.

With less than a month remaining in his term, Biden’s decision has been widely regarded as a step towards reforming the federal justice system and addressing longstanding controversies surrounding capital punishment.

“These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,” Biden said in a statement.

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“I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole,” he said.

The three inmates who will remain on federal death row include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who helped carry out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and Dylann Roof, an avowed white supremacist who in 2015 shot and killed nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.

Robert Bowers, who killed 11 Jewish worshippers during a 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, will also remain on death row.

Those commuted included nine people convicted of murdering fellow prisoners, four for murders committed during bank robberies and one who killed a prison guard.

“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden said.

“But guided by my conscience and my experience…I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” he added.

– Trump death penalty expansion –

Biden campaigned for the White House as an opponent of the death penalty, and the Justice Department issued a moratorium on its use at the federal level after he became president.

During his reelection campaign, Trump spoke frequently of expanding the use of capital punishment to include migrants who kill American citizens and drug and human traffickers.

There had been no federal inmates put to death in the United States since 2003 until Trump resumed federal executions in July 2020.

He oversaw 13 by lethal injection during his final six months in power, more than any US leader in 120 years.

The last federal execution — which was carried out by lethal injection at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana — took place on January 16, 2021, four days before Trump left office.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while six others — Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee — have moratoriums in place.

In 2024, there have been 25 executions in the United States, all at the state level.

President Biden commutes death sentences of 37 federal inmates

(AFP)