Biden cheered by Democrats and civil rights groups for commuting dozens of death row inmates

Civil rights groups who anxiously prepared for the beginning of the Donald Trump‘s presidency breathed a sigh of relief on Monday as president Joe Biden announced the largest single-day commute by federal death row inmates in modern history.

The White House announced early Monday morning that the president would commute the sentences of 37 inmates awaiting execution in the federal prison system. Now, only three people will remain on death row after the commutes: mass murderers Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Robert Bowers.

Much of Washington is now deserted, with the Christmas holiday driving many lawmakers, staffers and other federal workers out of town for weeks. The president’s action Monday came after a weeks-long advocacy campaign launched by the ACLU and other death penalty opponents urging Biden in that direction, one that received help from both of the president’s allies on Capitol Hill, actors such as Martin Sheen (known for its The West Wing portraying President Jed Bartlett), as well as business leaders including Richard Branson and Sheryl Sandberg.

By far the biggest name to support the effort was Pope Francis, who noted the problem during his daily address in St. Peter’s Square.

Monday’s announcement also followed a move by Biden earlier this month to commute the sentences of hundreds of federal inmates who had previously been moved to home detention. Similar to his latest decision, the commute of 1,500 Americans was the largest single-day clemency by a US president in modern times.

The president’s commutation of death row inmates is likely to be met with approval by his Democratic base, unlike the Dec. 12 clemency announcement that swept, among others, a former federal judge convicted of sending children to for-profit prison facilities in exchange. for bribery. The “Kids For Cash” scandal is widely considered to be one of the worst black marks on the US judicial system in its history.

News that Michael Conahan would be among those granted clemency earlier this month drew disgusted condemnations from many in his home state of Pennsylvania, including its Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, who is believed to have been the runner-up to run for Vice President Kamala Harris ‘ candidate. coxswain during the 2024 election.

By comparison, while MAGA loyalists such as Senator-elect Jim Banks sounded off on Biden’s order on Monday, relieved expressions of approval poured in from top Democrats on the Hill who supported the “commute the row” campaign and others.

“By reversing the sentences of 37 people on death row, President Biden has taken the most consequential step of any president in our history to address the immoral and unconstitutional harms of the death penalty,” said Anthony Romero, ACLU Executive Director.

Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, had been one of the Democrats on Biden’s case death penalty commutations. Durbin was one of the Democrats who offered at least a half-hearted defense of the president’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, who was awaiting sentencing on tax and gun charges. Biden had specifically promised not to pardon his son, a statement he and his aides, such as press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, repeated several times during the 2024 election.

“Thank you @POTUS Biden for answering this call to action to address the longstanding injustices facing our justice system,” wrote Rep. Adriano Espaillat. “Today’s action represents a core of humanity and upholds the moral integrity of our nation’s justice system.”

Richard Branson wrote in a Twitter thread: “Commuting these federal death sentences sends an important signal that there are alternatives to state-sanctioned killing. By fighting for forgiveness and mercy, President Biden has come down on the right side of history.”

“The death penalty is broken. It is inhuman and unfair. It is expensive and wasteful. And it does not deliver justice or make communities safer.”

Civil rights groups had feared a return to the accelerated pace of executions during Trump’s first term when the president-elect takes office in January. Federal executions were halted completely before Trump took office, but by the end of his four years in office, Donald Trump had overseen more executions than any US president in 100 years. The 13 executions carried out all took place during Trump’s last year in office.

Trump himself remains very open about his desire to expand the use of the death penalty beyond the standard set by the Supreme Court in Coker vs. Georgia. Trump has said he would expand the use of the death penalty to those convicted of drug trafficking, possibly including low-level dealers. This would require a major rewriting of legal precedent by the nation’s highest court.

“These are terrible, terrible, terrible people who are responsible for death, carnage and crime across the country,” Trump said in 2022. “We’re going to ask that anyone caught selling drugs receive the death penalty for their heinous actions .”