On Monday, 23rd December, US President Joe Biden commuted death sentences of 37 federal inmates changing their punishment to life in prison without parole. This is ahead of January 20th, 2025, when incumbent President Joe Biden would hand over power to President-elect Donald Trump.
As per the reports, this action of Biden is expected to affect Trump’s plans to resume a rapid pace of federal executions. Notably, the clemency decisions are irreversible by the future president, unlike executive orders. However, it is believed that the death penalty could be pursued more aggressively in new criminal cases.
Donald Trump, during his first term in the year 2017, had reinstated federal executions. Meanwhile, Joe Biden, who took office in the year 2021 campaigned against the death penalty, and suspended federal executions.
Incumbent President Joe Biden is believed to have faced pressures recently from congressional Democrats, anti-death penalty advocates, and religious leaders, including Pope Francis, to commute federal death sentences before the end of his term following which the action has been taken.
“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 a statement.
“But guided by my conscience and my experience. 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,” he added.
Not only this, but Joe Biden earlier this month commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 persons and granted pardons to 39 others convicted of nonviolent offenses. Reportedly, his son Hunter Biden was among those pardoned by him then. Hunter Biden had pleaded guilty to tax violations and was convicted on firearms-related charges.
However, reports suggest that the direction issued on Monday doesn’t include cases involving terrorism or hate-motivated mass murders. It also excludes three high-profile federal death row inmates identified as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; Dylann Roof, convicted for the 2015 shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina; and Robert Bowers, convicted for the 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
President’s action further does not affect nearly 2,200 death row inmates convicted in state courts, as the authority lacks power over state-level executions.
According to the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, nearly 12,000 clemency requests have been submitted during Biden’s presidency. As of December 9th, he had granted 161 clemency petitions, including 26 pardons and 135 commutations.