President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal death row inmates, reducing their punishment to life imprisonment as his term nears its conclusion.
“These commutations align with the moratorium on federal executions that my administration continues to enforce, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass killings,” President Biden said in a statement on December 23.
Under the president's decision, 37 federal death row inmates will have their sentences commuted to life without parole. Those granted commutations include nine inmates convicted of killing fellow prisoners, four convicted of murders during bank robberies, and one inmate convicted of murdering a prison guard.
“Make no mistake, I condemn these heinous crimes and grieve deeply for the victims and their loved ones who have endured unimaginable loss. But my experience and conscience guide me. I firmly believe we must end the federal death penalty,” President Biden added.
Three inmates were excluded from the commutations: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a co-conspirator in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; Dylann Roof, a white supremacist who killed nine Black churchgoers in South Carolina in 2015; and Robert Bowers, who murdered 11 Jewish worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018.
Biden has consistently opposed the death penalty since his presidential campaign. After his election, the U.S. Department of Justice imposed a moratorium on federal executions.
In contrast, President-elect Donald Trump has frequently advocated for expanding the use of the death penalty, including for undocumented immigrants convicted of murdering U.S. citizens, human traffickers, and drug dealers.
No federal executions were carried out in the U.S. between 2003 and July 2020 under Trump’s administration. However, during the final six months of his first term, 13 federal inmates were executed by lethal injection. The most recent federal execution occurred on January 16, 2021, four days before Trump left office.
Currently, 23 of the 50 U.S. states have abolished the death penalty, while six states—Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee—have imposed moratoriums on executions. In 2024, the U.S. carried out 25 executions, all at the state level.
(Sources: AFP, AP)
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