US President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 federal prisoners sentenced to death. Their sentences have now been commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
This is stated in the White House press release.
When Joe Biden became president, his administration imposed a moratorium on federal executions. His decision today to commute the sentence will thwart President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to restore federal executions, as the president’s successor, Biden, will not be able to reverse the decision.
Donald Trump reinstated federal executions after a nearly 20-year hiatus during his first presidential term from 2017 to 2020. Biden, while running for president, opposed the death penalty and suspended federal executions when he took office in January 2021.
Over the past week, the US Democratic Party, opponents of the death penalty, and religious leaders such as Pope Francis have pressured Biden to commute sentences before Trump returns to power.
However, this decision by Joe Biden does not affect the nearly 2,200 death row inmates whose sentences were handed down by state courts, not the US Federal Court.
- Biden recently announced pardons for 39 people and commutations for 1,500 prisoners serving long prison sentences. He also pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, in two criminal cases.
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