President Joe Biden on Monday announced he is commuting the sentences of nearly all those on federal death row in a move aimed at preventing the incoming Trump administration from restarting federal executions.
The sentences for 37 individuals facing execution will now be reclassified to life without the possibility of parole.
Only three men behind bars for “terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder” will remain on federal death row: “Robert D. Bowers, 52, who in 2018 gunned down 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh; Dylann Roof, 30, the white supremacist who in 2015 opened fire on Black parishioners at a church in Charleston, S.C., killing nine people; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 31, one of the two brothers who carried out the bombing of the Boston Marathon in 2013 that killed three and maimed more than a dozen others,” according to The New York Times.
This historic clemency action builds on the President’s record of criminal justice reform. The President has issued more commutations at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same point in their first terms. Earlier this month, the President announced clemency for approximately 1,500 Americans – the most ever in a single day – who have shown successful rehabilitation and a commitment to making communities safer. This included sentence commutations for nearly 1,500 individuals who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities, as well as 39 pardons for individuals who were convicted of non-violent crimes. President Biden is also the first President ever to issue categorical pardons to individuals convicted of simple use and possession of marijuana, and to former LGBTQI+ service members convicted of private conduct because of their sexual orientation. (White House)
"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.
"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," he added. "In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted."
