Biden Commutes Sentences for Nearly All Federal Death Row Inmates Amid Mixed Reactions

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President Biden has recently commuted the sentences of 37 out of the 40 individuals on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. This decision spares the lives of those convicted in various heinous crimes, including the killings 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 commutations are part of Biden's broader efforts to reform the criminal justice system and reduce the use of capital punishment at the federal level. Biden has imposed a moratorium on federal executions, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder. This action aims to prevent the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump from resuming executions that Biden halted in 2021.
The three inmates who remain on federal death row are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the perpetrators of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.
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Biden's decision has been met with mixed reactions. Advocates of the death penalty and some victims' families have criticized the move, arguing that it undermines justice for the victims. On the other hand, opponents of the death penalty and various civil and human rights groups have praised Biden for taking significant steps towards ending capital punishment and addressing racial and procedural injustices in the justice system.
This action follows Biden's previous record-setting clemency actions, including the commutation of nearly 1,500 sentences and the pardon of 39 individuals convicted of non-violent crimes, which marked the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.