As President Biden’s term comes to an end, he is reportedly considering commuting the sentences of most, if not all, of the 40 men on the federal government’s death row.
The Wall Street Journal quoted sources familiar with the matter: reported that the move would derail President-elect Trump’s plan to streamline executions when he takes office in January.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, who oversees federal prisons, recommended Biden commute all but a handful of egregious sentences, the sources said.
The outlet reported that possible exceptions include: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 2013 Boston Marathon bomber who killed three people and injured more than 250; Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people in the 2018 attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh; and Dylann Roof, who killed nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
TRUMP EXPECTS TO END BIDEN-ERA DEATH PENALTY BREAK AND EXTEND TO MORE FEDERAL PRISONERS
President Biden speaks about his administration’s economic strategy and the future of the American economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington on December 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Those who could see their death sentence commuted to life in prison include a former Marine who killed two young girls and later a female Marine officer, a Las Vegas man convicted of kidnapping and killing a 12-year-old girl, and a Chicago podiatrist fatally shot a patient to stop her from testifying in a Medicare fraud investigation, and two men were convicted in a kidnapping and ransom scheme involving five Russian and Georgians Immigrants were killed.
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The move came after Biden, a lifelong Catholic, spoke with him Pope Francis Thursday. In his weekly prayer, Pope Francis asked for the conversion of condemned prisoners in America.
A presidential decision could come by Christmas, some sources said. The outlet noted that the biggest question is the extent of commutation of death row inmates.
President Biden speaks at a podium (AP)
Biden is the first president to openly oppose the death penalty, and on his 2020 campaign website he stated that he would “work to pass legislation abolishing the death penalty at the federal level and create incentives for states to follow the federal government’s lead.” consequences”.
In January 2021, Biden initially considered an executive order, sources familiar with the matter told The Associated Press, but the White House did not issue one.
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Six months after taking office Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a moratorium on the federal death penalty to further study it. The close call has meant there have been no federal executions under Biden.
