President Joe Biden has acted 28 days before he leaves office to commute the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment.
AP reports a long list of convicted offenders will be spared after they were sentenced for a range of criminal acts including the slayings of police and military officers, people on federal land and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, as well as the killings of guards or prisoners in federal facilities. The outlet notes:
It means just three federal inmates are still facing execution. They 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 U.S history.
“I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement.
“Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”
This graphic breaks down the method used in all executions in the U.S. since 1977. Data source: Death Penalty Information Center. (Graphic by Visual Capitalist via Getty Images)
Biden took a political jab at President-elect Donald Trump, saying, “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
For his part, AP notes Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has spoken frequently of expanding executions.
In a speech announcing his 2024 campaign, Trump called for those “caught selling drugs to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts.”
Right on. https://t.co/f9HDXohIea
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 31, 2023
He later promised to execute drug and human smugglers while during his first term as president, Trump also advocated for the death penalty for drug dealers.
As Breitbart News previously reported, at the beginning of December, Pope Francis called for people to pray “for those on death row in the United States,” and that the inmates’ “sentences may be commuted.”
