President Joe Biden recently announced that he is commuting the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment. This decision comes just before President-elect Donald Trump, a strong advocate for expanding capital punishment, takes office. The move spares the lives of individuals convicted of various crimes, such as killings of police officers, military personnel, individuals on federal land, and those involved in deadly incidents like bank robberies or drug deals. Only three federal inmates remain on death row, including Dylann Roof, the perpetrator of the racist 2015 Mother Emanuel AME Church massacre, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers, responsible for the deadly shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018.
Biden, known for his dedication to reducing violent crime and promoting a fair justice system, stated, “Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.” This action aligns with the moratorium on federal executions imposed by his administration, excluding cases involving terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.
In 2021, the Biden administration halted federal capital punishment to assess the existing protocols, effectively suspending executions during his term. Biden had previously pledged to end federal executions altogether, without exceptions for terrorism and hate-motivated crimes.
While condemning the actions of these criminals and expressing sympathy for the victims and their families, Biden emphasized his belief that the death penalty should be abolished at the federal level. He criticized Trump’s stance on executions and vowed to prevent a resumption of federal executions under the new administration.
During his presidency, Trump advocated for expanding executions, particularly for drug-related offenses. His tenure saw 13 federal executions, the most under any modern president, with concerns raised about the potential contribution of these executions to the spread of COVID-19 at the federal death row facility in Indiana. These were the first federal executions since 2003, and the final three took place after the 2020 Election but before Trump’s departure from office.
In January of the following year, federal prisoners were executed by a lame-duck president for the first time since Grover Cleveland in 1889. President Biden had been under increasing pressure from advocacy groups to take action to prevent the Trump administration from escalating the use of capital punishment for federal inmates. Less than two weeks before the announcement, Biden had granted clemency to approximately 1,500 individuals who had been released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes. This act of clemency marked the largest single-day action of its kind in modern history.
The president’s announcement also followed his post-election pardon of his son Hunter for federal gun and tax charges, despite initially stating that he would not issue such a pardon. This decision sparked controversy in Washington and raised concerns about whether Biden would issue preemptive pardons for administration officials and allies who may be at risk of unjust targeting in a potential second Trump administration.
Speculation grew that Biden might commute federal death sentences after the White House disclosed his plans to visit Italy on his final foreign trip as president the following month. As a practicing Catholic, Biden intended to meet with Pope Francis, who had recently called for prayers for U.S. death row inmates in the hopes that their sentences would be commuted.
Martin Luther King III, who had publicly urged Biden to address the issue of death sentences, praised the president’s actions in a statement released by the White House. King stated, “The president has done what no president before him was willing to do: take meaningful and lasting action not just to acknowledge the death penalty’s racist roots but also to remedy its persistent unfairness.”
Donnie Oliverio, a retired Ohio police officer whose partner had been killed by one of the individuals whose death sentence was commuted, expressed his support for Biden’s decision. Oliverio remarked, “The execution of the person who killed my police partner and best friend would have brought me no peace.” He further emphasized that Biden’s actions were in line with their shared faith.
Reporter Weissert provided this information from West Palm Beach, Florida.
