WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� President on Monday announced that he is of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before President-elect , an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office.
The move spares the lives of people , including the slayings of police and military officers, people on federal land and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, as well as the killings of guards or prisoners in federal facilities.
The decision leaves three federal inmates to face execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber ; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh鈥檚 , the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history.
. 鈥淭oday, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.鈥�
Reaction was strong, both for and against. A Trump spokesperson called the decision 鈥渁bhorrent.鈥�
鈥淭hese are among the worst killers in the world and this abhorrent decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones." said Trump spokesman Steven Cheung. "President Trump stands for the rule of law, which will return when he is back in the White House after he was elected with a massive mandate from the American people.鈥�
Heather Turner, whose mother was killed during the 2017 robbery of a Conway, South Carolina, bank, blasted the decision in a social media post, saying Biden didn't consider the victims of these crimes.
鈥淭he pain and trauma we have endured over the last 7 years has been indescribable,鈥� Turner wrote on Facebook, describing weeks spent in court in search of justice as 鈥渘ow just a waste of time.鈥�
鈥淥ur judicial system is broken. Our government is a joke,鈥� she said. "Joe Biden鈥檚 decision is a clear gross abuse of power. He, and his supporters, have blood on their hands.鈥�
Some of Roof's victims supported Biden's decision to leave him on death row.
Michael Graham, whose sister Cynthia Hurd was killed by Roof, said Roof's lack of remorse and simmering white nationalism in the U.S. means Roof is the kind of dangerous and evil person the death penalty is intended for.
鈥淭his was a crime against a race of people who were doing something all Americans do on a Wednesday night 鈥� go to Bible study,鈥� Graham said. 鈥淚t didn鈥檛 matter who was there, only that they were Black.鈥�
The Biden administration in 2021 announced a on federal capital punishment to study the protocols used, which suspended executions during Biden's term. But Biden actually had promised to go further on the issue in the past, pledging to end federal executions without the caveats for terrorism and hate-motivated, mass killings.
While running for president in 2020, Biden's campaign website said he would 鈥渨ork to pass legislation to , and incentivize states to follow the federal government鈥檚 example.鈥�
Similar language didn't appear on Biden's reelection website before he in July.
鈥淢ake 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,鈥� Biden's statement said. 鈥淏ut 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.鈥�
He took a political jab at Trump, saying, 鈥淚n good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.鈥�
Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has spoken frequently of expanding executions. In a speech , Trump called for those 鈥渃aught selling drugs to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts.鈥� He later promised to execute drug and human smugglers and even praised China's harsher treatment of drug peddlers. During his first term as president, Trump .
There were during Trump's first term, more than under any president in modern history, and some may have happened fast enough to have contributed to the at the federal death row facility in Indiana.
Those were the first federal executions since 2003. The final three occurred after Election Day in November 2020 but before Trump left office the following January, the first time federal prisoners were put to death by a lame-duck president since Grover Cleveland in 1889.
Biden from advocacy groups urging him to act to make it more difficult for Trump to increase the use of capital punishment for federal inmates. The president's announcement also comes less than two weeks after he of who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, and of 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes, the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
The announcement also followed the post-election pardon that Biden granted his son Hunter on federal gun and tax charges after long saying he would not issue one, sparking an uproar in Washington. The pardon also raised questions about whether he would issue sweeping for administration officials and other allies who the White House worries could be unjustly second administration.
Speculation that Biden could commute federal death sentences intensified last week after the White House announced he plans to next month. Biden, a practicing Catholic, will meet with Pope Francis, who recently in hopes their sentences will be commuted.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has long called for an end to the death penalty, said Biden's decision is a 鈥渟ignificant step in advancing the cause of human dignity in our nation鈥� and moves the country 鈥渁 step closer to building a culture of life.鈥�
Martin Luther King III, who publicly urged Biden to change the death sentences, said in a statement shared by the White House that the president "has done what no president before him was willing to do: take meaningful and lasting action not just to acknowledge the death penalty鈥檚 racist roots but also to remedy its persistent unfairness.鈥�
Madeline Cohen, an attorney for Norris Holder, who faced death for the 1997 fatal shooting of a guard during a bank robbery in St. Louis, said his case 鈥渆xemplifies the racial bias and arbitrariness that led the President to commute federal death sentences,鈥� Cohen said. Holder, who is Black, was sentenced by an all-white jury.
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Weissert reported from West Palm Beach, Florida. Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, and Jim Salter in O'Fallon, Missouri, contributed to this report.
Will Weissert And Darlene Superville, The Associated Press
