US President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 inmates on federal death row.
“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,” he said.
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Citing his experiences as a public defender and offices he held in the Senate, Vice President and President, Biden added, “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.”
The commutations came less than a month before President-elect Donald Trump, who supports the death penalty, takes office for a second term.
These commutations are only for the 37 facing federal death penalty and not in the States. There are in all — including those on death row in the states — 2250 prisoners on death row across the US, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre, a non-profit organisation that says its mission is to serve the media, policymakers, and the general public with data and analysis on issues concerning capital punishment and the people it affects
The three left on death row were those charged with terrorism and hate-driven mass killings: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who with his now-dead brother carried out the 2013 Boston marathon bombing in Massachusetts that had killed three people; Dylann Roof, who killed nine worshippers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in 2018.
Biden, a Catholic, has been opposed to the use of the death penalty and his administration imposed a moratorium on federal executions. The White House said in a note explaining the president’s decision, “his actions today will prevent the next Administration from carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice”.
Pope Francis has joined a growing number of people and organisations who had appealed to the US president to commute the death penalties.
“Today, it comes to my heart to ask all of you to pray for the prisoners in the United States who are on death row,” the Pontiff said on December 8. “Let’s pray that their sentence would be commuted (or) changed”.
