The White House announced on Monday that President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of almost all of the current federal death row inmates ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
“Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House on Monday. “These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”
In his statement, Biden said that he condemns the “murderers,” grieves for the “victims of their despicable acts,” and aches “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,” Biden added. “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
According to Fox News, the individuals whose sentences Biden commuted on Monday were previously convicted for murder, including the murder of families, children, law enforcement officers, military members, witnesses, and other inmates. The outlet noted that some of the individuals were expected to be executed alongside their co-defendants prior to Biden’s executive action.
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Fox News reported that the three federal death row inmates not included in Monday’s commutation include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who worked alongside his brother to carry out the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, Dylann Roof, who killed nine black church members at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, and Robert Bowers, who carried out a mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018.
The White House explained that Biden’s actions will “prevent the next Administration from carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice.” The White House also noted that Biden will “take additional steps to provide meaningful second chances and continue to review additional pardons and commutations” over the remaining weeks of his administration.
In a post criticizing the president’s decision to commute the sentences of 37 death row inmates on Monday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) wrote, “Once again, Democrats side with depraved criminals over their victims, public order, and common decency. Democrats can’t even defend Biden’s outrageous decision as some kind of principled, across-the-board opposition to the death penalty since he didn’t commute the three most politically toxic cases. Democrats are the party of politically convenient justice.”
