WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced on Monday that he is commuting the sentences of nearly every inmate on federal death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole, in a move intended to keep his successor, President-elect Donald Trump, from going forward with executions he had previously halted.
In a statement, Biden said that he was issuing the commutations to 37 of 40 federal death row prisoners, in keeping with a moratorium his administration imposed on executions. The moratorium excludes individuals convicted of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.
The list of commutations released by the White House on Monday did not include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured more than 260 people, or Robert Bowers, convicted in the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue mass shooting in Pittsburgh that left 11 people dead.
He also declined to commute the sentence of Dylann Roof, who was convicted in the 2015 Charleston, South Carolina, mass shooting at Mother Emanuel, an African American church. Nine people were killed.
Among the death row prisoners who had their sentences commuted: Thomas Steven Sanders, a man who was sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of a 12-year-old girl in Louisiana; Len Davis, a former police officer who was sentenced to death for ordering the killing of a woman after she filed a complaint against him with the then-Internal Affairs Division of the New Orleans Police Department; and Richard Allen Jackson, a man who was convicted of the kidnapping, rape, and murder of a 22-year-old who was going for a jog in Asheville, North Carolina.
Biden pledged to end the death penalty during his presidential campaign and had been under pressure from progressive lawmakers and criminal justice activists to commute the sentences of federal death row inmates before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
“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,” Biden said in a statement.
But he later added: “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.”
Trump has said he would seek to expand the death penalty in his second term. During its first White House stint, the Trump administration carried out 13 federal executions, ending a 17-year hiatus.
All but three of the 16 individuals who have been executed for federal crimes since 1988 were put to death during Trump’s term in office.
Biden has vigorously taped into his clemency powers as president as he prepares to exit office. He commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people who had been on home confinement since the COVID-19 pandemic earlier in the month in what the White House called “the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.”
Biden also pardoned 39 people who were convicted of nonviolent crimes. He issued a sweeping pardon to his son, Hunter Biden, in early December that included gun and tax charges.
Trump also made use of his clemency power near the end of his presidency. He issued 74 pardons and 70 commutations on his last full day in office.
Contributing: Joey Garrison. USA TODAY
