Washington, D.C. – In a bold and compassionate move, President Joe Biden announced on Monday that he will be commuting the sentences of 37 out of the 40 people on federal death row. This decision comes just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, a man known for his outspoken support of expanding capital punishment.
This decision by President Biden means that the lives of those convicted in heinous crimes, including the killings of police and military officers, people on federal land, and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, will be spared. It also includes those convicted of killing guards or prisoners in federal facilities.
Only three federal inmates will now face the death penalty. These include Dylann Roof, who carried out the racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015, 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history.
In a statement, President Biden said, “I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system. 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 Biden administration had previously announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment in 2021 to study the protocols used, effectively suspending executions during Biden’s term. However, Biden had promised to go further on the issue in the past, pledging to end federal executions without any caveats for terrorism and hate-motivated, mass killings.
During his presidential campaign in 2020, Biden’s website stated that he would “work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level, and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example.” However, this language was not included on his reelection website before he left the race in July.
President Biden reiterated his stance on the issue, saying, “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. 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.”
He also took a political jab at Trump, stating, “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
Trump, who will take office on January 20th, has frequently spoken about expanding executions. In a speech announcing his 2024 campaign, he called for those “caught selling drugs to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts.” He later promised to execute drug and human smugglers and even praised China’s harsher treatment of drug peddlers. During his first term as president, Trump also advocated for the death penalty for drug dealers.
Under Trump’s administration, there were 13 federal executions, the most under any president in modern history. Some of these executions may have happened quickly enough to contribute to the spread of the coronavirus at the federal death row facility in Indiana. The final three executions took place after the 2020 election but before Trump left office in January 2021, marking the first time federal prisoners were put to death by a lame-duck president since Grover Cleveland in 1889.
President Biden faced pressure from advocacy groups to take action and make it more difficult for Trump to increase the use of capital punishment for federal inmates. This decision also comes less than two weeks after he commuted the sentences of approximately 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes. This was the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
The announcement also followed the post-election pardon that Biden granted to his son Hunter on federal gun and tax charges, despite previously stating that he would not issue one. This sparked an uproar in Washington and raised questions about whether he would issue preemptive pardons for administration officials and other allies
