Washington, US

US President-elect Donald Trump blasted President Joe Biden for commuting the death sentences of almost every American federal prisoner. 

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The outgoing US president announced in his final month in the White House that he was converting the death sentences of 37 inmates out of a total of 40 who are waiting for federal execution to life without the possibility of parole. Nine inmates among them were convicted of murdering fellow prisoners, and five are also murder convicts. 

The Republican posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Tuesday (Dec 24) saying, "Joe Biden just commuted the Death Sentence on 37 of the worst killers in our Country." Trump further said that if one would hear the acts of each inmate, they would not believe that Biden did what he did on Monday. 

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"Makes no sense. Relatives and friends are further devastated. They can't believe this is happening!" Trump wrote in his post on Truth Social. 

But Biden did not pardon the other three inmates. 

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Here's what you need to know about the three individuals that were not part of Biden's clemency:

Dylann Roof

Dylann Roof, a white Supremacist, was behind the Charleston church shooting of 2015.

On June 17, 2015, during a Bible study, Roof, who was 21 years old at the time, shot dead nine people and injured a 10th one at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. 

All of Roof's victims were African Americans.

When caught, he confessed that he carried out the shooting in hopes of igniting a race war. 

On December 15, 2016, he was convicted in a federal court on 33 charges, including hate crimes, and subsequently, on January 11, 2017, he was sentenced to death for his crimes. 

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Dzhokhar "Jahar" Anzorovich Tsarnaev, along with his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was behind the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013.

On April 15, 2013, the two brothers planted a series of homemade pressure cooker bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Their attack claimed the lives of three people, while 264 others were injured. 

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Later, in a getaway attempt, the two brothers killed MIT Police Officer Sean Collier while attempting to steal his weapon.

In the ensuing shootout, Tamerlan was killed and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was injured.

He was charged with the usage of a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death, in addition to aiding and abetting murder. On May 15, 2015, the jury sentenced 21-year-old Dzhokhar to death by lethal injection.

Robert Bowers

Robert Gregory Bowers is the perpetrator behind the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, an antisemitic terrorist attack that took place at the Tree of Life—Or L'Simcha Congregation synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighbourhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2018.

On October 27, 2018, during the Shabbat morning services, he killed 11 people and wounded six, including several Holocaust survivors.

The attack is considered the deadliest on a local Jewish community in American history so far, second only to the 2019 Jersey City shooting.

Bowers, 46 years old at the time of his crime, was sentenced to death by legal injection last year, on August 3, 2023.

(With inputs from agencies)