Joe Biden speaks at the Department of Labor on Dec. 16, 2024 in Washington, DC.Photo:Kevin Dietsch/Getty
Kevin Dietsch/Getty
PresidentJoe Bidenspared the lives of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row before passing the torch to President-electDonald Trump, whonotably executed five peoplein the final days of his first term. Biden did not pardon the murderers, but rather downgraded their sentences from the death penalty to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” the president, 82, said in a statement on Monday, Dec. 23.
Despite his rebuke of capital punishment, Biden declined to intervene in the cases of three individuals who were given the death penalty.
Those who remain on federal death row now areDylann Roof, who killed nine Black people at a Charleston, S.C., church in 2015;Robert Bowers, who killed 11 Jewish people during an attack at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018; andDzhokhar Tsarnaev, who killed three people and injured 264 others when he detonated bombs at the Boston Marathon in 2013.
Asked about his choice to exclude only three inmates, an administration official tells PEOPLE: “The remaining individuals were convicted for hate-motivated mass murder or acts of terrorism. That is the distinction.”
Dylann Roof, Robert Bowers and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.Lexington County (S.C.) Detention Center via AP; REX/Shutterstock; FBI via Getty
Lexington County (S.C.) Detention Center via AP; REX/Shutterstock; FBI via Getty
When Biden took office in 2021, he temporarily suspended federal executions. His latest actions “will prevent the next Administration from carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice,” according to officials.
Boston-area CongresswomanAyanna Pressleyalso praised Biden for his revolutionary actions after havingheld a press conferenceearlier this month to ask him to re-sentence those on federal death row.
“There is no action more powerful or righteous than sparing someone’s life, and today President Biden is doing just that,” she wrote in astatement. “The President’s decision to commute the death sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row is a historic and groundbreaking act of compassion that will save lives, address the deep racial disparities in our criminal legal system, and send a powerful message about redemption, decency, and humanity.”
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On Dec. 12, Biden separatelyannouncedclemency for nearly 1,500 individuals placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic who “have shown successful rehabilitation and a strong commitment to making their communities safer.”
He also pardoned 39 people convicted of non-violent crimes.
The briefing stated that Biden is “the first president ever to issue categorical pardons to individuals convicted of simple use and possession of marijuana, and to former LGBTQI+ service members convicted of private conduct because of their sexual orientation.”
In 2020,Reutersreported, Biden campaigned on criminal justice reform and said he’d work “to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level, and incentivize states to follow.”
source: people.com
