SALT LAKE CITY — Christmas came early for 37 federal death row inmates Monday as President Joe Biden commuted their sentences to life without the possibility of parole. He did not commute the sentences of those convicted of hate-motivated mass murder or terrorism.
“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 added that “in good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
The commutations include 37 men convicted of murder who have been awaiting execution in the federal system. According to the Wall Street Journal, it does not include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who with his now-dead brother bombed the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding hundreds; Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people in 2018 at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh; and Dylann Roof, who killed nine people in 2015 at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Nor were four servicemen found guilty of murder and on military death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, included in the commutation.
Were the victims’ families consulted?
Paul Cassell, a distinguished professor of criminal law at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, wrote for Reason.com that it’s unclear whether the president conferred with any families of the victims who were murdered by the men who received commutation of their sentences. “I wonder whether the president has ignored the rights and interests of crime victims’ family members in granting mass commutations.”
Cassell noted an announced Justice Department policy for handing requests for executive clemency.
It states in part that, “The family or families of any victim of an offense for which the petitioner was sentenced to death may, with the assistance of the prosecuting office, request to make an oral presentation of reasonable duration to the Office of the Pardon Attorney,” he wrote, adding the White House fact sheet made no reference to that happening.
His question, Cassell added, is procedural. “I don’t take a position on the substantive pros and cons of the 37 commutations.”
Lawmakers criticize Biden commutations
The reaction to the commutation of the death sentences has been divided. Some Republican lawmakers have been unabashedly critical, even questioning the president’s competence to make such decisions.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, reposted a New York Post entry on X that included photos of two convicted killers and their young victims. It read, “Biden commutes death sentences of child killers and mass murderers 2 days before Christmas.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., called the move “politically convenient.” “Once again, Democrats side with depraved criminals over their victims, public order and common decency,” he posted on X.
He added, “Joe Biden is using his last days in office to spare the worst monsters in America. Democrats can’t even defend Biden’s outrageous decision as some kind of principled, across-the-board opposition to the death penalty since he didn’t commute the three most politically toxic cases.”
Cotton later posted: “Contracts, wills, and other legal actions are null and void if a party is mentally incompetent, as Joe Biden obviously is. The Congress and the Trump Department of Justice should investigate whether these pardons for depraved murderers are binding.”
Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., posted on X that the president’s decision “is not just senseless — it’s an outrageous example of this administration’s upside down and backwards ideology.” Biden’s “out-of-touch agenda keeps putting America last. January 20th cannot come soon enough,” he added, including a link to an interview he gave Newsmax.
What the Catholic Church says about death penalty
On the other side, Catholic leaders and civil rights groups have been among those heralding the commutation of the federal death row sentences.
Based on his previous statements, it’s clear that President-elect Donald Trump opposes the commutation. The CNN article reported that Trump “has voiced support for imposing the death penalty on convicted human traffickers and drug dealers, while also saying he would seek to have prosecutors pursue the death penalty for migrants who kill American citizens or anyone who kills a law enforcement officer.”
Pope Francis advocated for the commutations during his Angelus address in October, according to the Vatican news service. And he and Biden shared a phone call last week. The Pope had earlier prayed that the sentences would be commuted, according to the New York Times and other reports.
Biden is also a Catholic. Representatives of that faith have been among ardent supporters of ending the death penalty.
“These commutations are a significant step in advancing the cause of human dignity and respect for human life from womb to tomb in our nation,” said Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a written statement heralding the decision.
Broglio added, “As we continue to proclaim the gospel in a broken world, this act of mercy is a step closer to building a culture of life. We encourage all lawmakers to continue to work towards the total abolition of the death penalty and to redirect the energy and resources that currently go towards executions to provide compassionate and professional assistance to the families of victims.”
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
