President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of the majority of people on federal death row, the White House announced on Monday, in anticipation of Donald Trump — a champion of capital punishment — taking office. The inmates have now been sentenced to life in prison.
Criminal justice advocates have been pushing Biden to take action on this issue after he pledged to end the federal death penalty during his presidential campaign — especially with Team Trump preparing another execution spree.
“I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden, the first president to publicly oppose the death penalty, said in a statement. “Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”
The three people still on federal death row are in prison for hate-motivated killings and terrorism. They are Dylann Roof, a white supremacist who killed nine African-Americans at church in Charleston, South Carolina; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who carried out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; and Robert Bowers, a white supremacist who killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The federal government executed 13 prisoners at the end of Trump’s first term, the first since 2003 during George W. Bush’s presidency. Trump and his team have been eagerly planning to go on another “killing spree” on federal death row once they take power, a Trump adviser recently told Rolling Stone. As we have reported, Trump has expressed interest in reinstating banned methods of capital punishment, and has suggested group executions and televising executions.
“These are terrible, terrible, horrible people who are responsible for death, carnage and crime all over the country,” Trump said in 2022 when he announced his intention to run for president. “We’re going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts,” he added.
There are about 2,250 prisoners facing execution in the U.S., according to the Death Penalty Information Center — the vast majority of whom are set to be executed by states. In September, Missouri killed Marcellus Williams despite prosecutors asking for the conviction to be overturned in the light of evidence of his innocence. The execution drew fury from activists.
Biden’s decision has been commended by victims’ families, former corrections officers, and religious leaders.
Biden commuted the death sentence of Daryl Lawrence, who killed Bryan Hurst, a police officer working special duty at a bank. Donnie Oliverio, a former police officer and Hurst’s partner, supports the Biden administration’s decision. “Putting to death the person who killed my police partner and best friend would have brought me no peace,” he said. “The President has done what is right here, and what is consistent with the faith he and I share.”
Hurst’s widow, though, criticized the decision. “While this is truly distressing news on a personal level for my family, it also feels like a complete dismissal and undermining of the federal justice system,” Marissa Gibson said. “Lawrence’s sentence was imposed by a jury, and it should be upheld as such.”
“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 the 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. In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
“This is a historic day,” said Martin Luther King III, who had encouraged Biden to take action on the issue. “By commuting these sentences, President Biden 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.”
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
