President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of nearly every prisoner on the federal government’s death row, a sweeping decision designed to hinder President-elect Donald Trump’s ability to rapidly resume executions.
Biden will commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 men condemned to death, the second mass clemency in the weeks following the pardon he issued to his son, Hunter Biden.
The president called the death row commutations, which will instead sentence them to imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole, consistent with his administration’s moratorium on executions.
“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 in a statement on Monday. “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.”
Biden added that the commutations were also spurred by Trump’s fervent support for capital punishment, saying he could not allow the incoming administration to restart executions for those he had spared over the last four years.
Thirteen federal inmates were put to death during Trump’s first term. In some instances, he took cases to the Supreme Court to defeat their final legal appeals.
Biden’s commutations exclude three prisoners convicted for what the president characterized as terrorism or “hate-motivated mass murder”: Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and mass shooters Robert Bowers — who killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh — and Dylann Roof, who killed nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
The move does nothing for people sentenced to death in state courts, which far outnumber the federal tally. The Death Penalty Information Center counts 2,241 people on death row at the state or federal level in the U.S. or face the possibility of being resentenced to death in a new trial.
Biden’s decision follows a Justice Department recommendation that he grant the commutations, and amid increasing pressure from a range of groups that have advocated for a series of clemency actions in his final days. Though the administration has done little to follow through on Biden’s 2020 campaign-trail support for abolishing the death penalty, it did halt all executions and conducted a review of capital punishment that the Justice Department is now on the verge of publishing.
The president’s pardon for his son, Hunter, prompted bipartisan blowback. He then commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people convicted of nonviolent crimes and pardoned another 39.
That mass clemency also proved controversial, with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro blasting the inclusion of an infamous former Pennsylvania judge as “absolutely wrong.”
Biden is sure to face immediate criticism as well for shielding nearly everyone on death row from execution. Several Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, had already blasted the prospect of the commutations for granting mercy to some of the nation’s most notorious murderers. In anticipation, the White House on Monday also released a lengthy list of quotes from clemency activists and other advocacy organizations praising Biden’s decision.
The White House also indicated that more clemency actions may be on the way. Biden is reviewing additional pardons and commutations, it said, committing to “additional steps to provide meaningful second chances” in the weeks before he leaves office.
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