Biden Commutes the Sentences of 37 Federal Death Row Inmates to Life Without Parole
President Joe Biden announced in Washington on December 23 that he was commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. A White House fact sheet released the same day listed the 37 individuals.
Biden said in his statement that the commutations are consistent with the moratorium his Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder. The three men who did not receive commutations are Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; Dylann Roof, who killed nine people at a historically Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; and Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2018.
Biden said he condemns these murderers, grieves for the victims of their despicable acts, and aches for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss, but that, guided by his conscience and his experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President and President, he is more convinced than ever that the United States must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level. He said he cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that he halted.
The Biden administration announced a moratorium on federal executions in 2021 to study the protocols used, and no federal executions were carried out during Biden's term. The White House noted that Biden has issued more commutations at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same point in their first terms. After the commutations, only the three men named above remain on federal death row facing execution. (Source: The White House)
Source: The White House
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：拜登总统2024年12月8日在白宫罗斯福厅发表讲话，为其2024年12月同期官方照片。白宫官方照片，Adam Schultz 摄，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: President Joe Biden delivers remarks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on December 8, 2024, an official White House photo from the same month. Official White House photo by Adam Schultz, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
