Biden Commutes Sentences Of All Federal Death Row Inmates — Except These Three
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President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 federal death row inmates, converting them to life in prison without parole in a decision Monday, leaving just three inmates convicted of terrorism or hate-fueled mass murder untouched.
This sweeping action comes after mounting apprehension among campaigners who feared that President-elect Donald Trump, who during his first term restarted federal executions after a nearly 20-year hiatus, would push for the executions to be carried out.
In a statement, Biden said:
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.
But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice-president, and now President, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level. In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.
The only inmates excluded from commutation are Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who orchestrated the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; Dylann Roof, convicted of killing nine Black congregants in a Charleston church in 2015; and Robert Bowers, responsible for the deadly synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018.
The move comes just weeks after Biden enacted the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history, commuting the sentences of 1,500 individuals and granting 39 presidential pardons – an action which itself followed his controversial pardon of his son Hunter Biden, who faced federal charges for gun possession and tax violations.
