(WASHINGTON) — On Monday, President Biden announced the commutation of sentences for 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row, changing their punishments to life imprisonment without parole. This action comes weeks before President-elect Trump, a vocal supporter of capital punishment, assumes office.
The commutation spares the lives of individuals convicted of various crimes, including the murder of police officers and military personnel, offenses committed on federal land, deadly bank robberies and drug trafficking, and the killing of guards or prisoners in federal facilities.
Only three federal inmates remain facing execution: Dylann Roof, the perpetrator of the Charleston, South Carolina church massacre; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 2013 Boston Marathon bomber; and Robert Bowers, responsible for the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue.
In a statement, President Biden explained, “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 initiated a moratorium on federal capital punishment in 2021 to review execution protocols, effectively suspending executions throughout his term. However, Biden’s prior commitment to ending federal executions was more extensive, excluding only terrorism and hate-motivated mass killings.
During his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden’s website stated 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.”
This language was absent from Biden’s reelection website before his July announcement.
Biden’s statement included, “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 directly addressed Trump, stating, “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
Trump, set to take office on January 20, has repeatedly advocated for expanding executions. In a speech, Trump called for the death penalty for those “caught selling drugs,” later extending this to drug and human smugglers, and praising China’s stricter drug enforcement. During his first term, Trump oversaw a resumption of federal executions.
There were 13 federal executions during Trump’s first term, exceeding any modern president’s total, possibly contributing to overcrowding at the federal death row facility in Indiana.
These were the first federal executions since 2003. The final three occurred after the November 2020 election but before Trump left office in January 2021, marking the first time a lame-duck president executed federal prisoners since Grover Cleveland in 1889.
Biden faced pressure from advocacy groups urging action to prevent Trump from increasing federal executions. This announcement follows Biden’s recent granting of clemency to 78 individuals released from prison to home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes—the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
The announcement also came after Biden’s post-election pardon of his son Hunter on federal gun and tax charges, despite prior statements to the contrary, creating controversy in Washington. This pardon raised questions about potential clemency for administration officials and allies who the White House fears may face unjust prosecution in a second Trump administration.
Speculation about Biden commuting death sentences intensified last week after the White House announced his planned Vatican visit next month. Biden, a Catholic, will meet with Pope Francis, who recently appealed for commutation of death sentences.
Martin Luther King III, who publicly urged Biden to act, stated that 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 was killed by one of the men whose death sentence was commuted, said the execution of “the person who killed my police partner and best friend would have brought me no peace.”
“The president has done what is right here,” Oliverio said, “and what is consistent with the faith he and I share.”
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Weissert reported from West Palm Beach, Florida.