Biden Commutes Most Federal Death Sentences Before Trump’s Term | Joe Biden news

US President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row in his weeks in office ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.

The move, announced Monday, means the 37 people instead face life in prison for their convictions, according to the White House. Three other inmates convicted of deadly hatred or “terrorism” will continue to be executed.

“Make no mistake: I condemn these killers, grieve for the victims of their despicable actions, 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 as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice president and now president, I am more convinced than ever that we must end the use of the death penalty at the federal level.” he said.

The announcement comes just weeks before Trump takes office. The president-elect, whose first four-year term ends in 2021, has regularly called for the death penalty for undocumented migrants who kill US citizens.

During his first term, he oversaw the execution of 13 federal inmates—the most under any president in the last 120 years.

Biden, who defeated Trump in the 2020 election, campaigned as an opponent of the death penalty. His administration imposed a moratorium on most federal executions when he took office.

“These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,” Biden said in the statement.

Three inmates remain on federal death row.

They include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev – who helped carry out the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three in 2013 – and Dylann Roof – a white supremacist who in 2015 shot and killed nine black churchgoers in a racist attack in Charleston – South Carolina.

Robert Bowers, who killed 11 Jewish worshipers in a 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, will also continue to be executed.

Meanwhile, nine people convicted of murdering fellow prisoners, four convicted of murder committed during bank robberies and one who killed a prison guard were among those who had their sentences commuted.

Also included was Billie Jerome Allen, who was convicted in 1998 at age 19 of killing a security guard during a robbery in Missouri.

The case has long attracted attention for what Amnesty International has described as “serious concerns about racial bias, his young age at the time and the lack of evidence linking him to the crime.”

‘Cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment’

Biden’s announcement follows calls from several rights groups, which pointed to Trump’s rhetoric and history when it comes to federal executions.

There had been no executions at the federal level since 2003, when Trump took office. The last federal execution in the United States took place on January 16, 2021, four days before Trump left the White House.

In a statement, Amnesty International USA executive director Paul O’Brien applauded Biden’s move, but said he needed to go further.

“The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, and President Biden’s eleventh-hour decision before leaving office to commute these death sentences is a huge moment for human rights,” O’Brien said.

“The president’s decision is an important step toward his 2020 pledge to end the death penalty at the federal level and encourage states to follow suit,” he said.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states. Six others — Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee — have moratoriums in place.

In 2024, there were 25 executions in the United States at the state level.