‘In good conscience,’ US President Biden commutes 37 out of 40 federal death row sentences as term nears end

Washington, United States

US President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal death row prisoners, reducing their punishment to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

With less than a month left in office, Biden faced increasing pressure from opponents of the death penalty to take action and commute the sentences of those awaiting execution at the federal level.

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This pressure was mostly because of US President-elect Donald Trump's pro-death row stance. Federal executions had been paused in the United States since 2003 until Trump resumed them in July 2020. During his final six months in office, Trump oversaw 13 executions by lethal injection, the highest number carried out by a US president in over 120 years.

In a statement released on Monday, Biden said, “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.”

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He added, “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. In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”

Only three inmates will remain on federal death row, including Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was involved in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and Dylann Roof, who murdered nine Black worshippers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. The third is Robert Bowers, responsible for killing 11 people in a synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Jewish community in 2018.

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The White House said that Biden has issued more commutations at this stage of his presidency than any recent president at the same point in their first term. Earlier this month, he granted clemency to around 1,500 US citizens, the largest number ever in a single day.

Biden has also made history as the first president to grant categorical pardons to individuals convicted of simple marijuana use and possession, as well as to former LGBTQ+ military personnel convicted due to their sexual orientation.

(With inputs from agencies)