DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Biden commutes most federal death row sentences to life in prison

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/23/politics/biden-federal-death-row-trump/index.html

President Joe Biden announced Monday that he is taking 37 people off federal death row to serve out life sentences behind bars — a decision that leaves only three federal prisoners awaiting execution when President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month.

“Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole,” Biden announced in a statement released Monday.

Notably, the president did not commute the sentences of three people whose crimes included mass shootings or acts of terrorism: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of two brothers responsible for the deadly Boston Marathon bombing in 2013; Dylann Roof, a White nationalist who massacred nine people at a historically Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; and Robert Bowers, who killed 11 worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018.

“These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,” Biden said, referring to his Justice Department’s halt on federal executions.

The majority of the 37 individuals whose sentences were commuted Monday were convicted for less high-profile offenses, such as murders tied to drug trafficking or the killings of prison guards or other inmates.

“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 his statement. “But 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. In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”

The move comes as opponents of the death penalty are bracing for Trump’s return to the White House. During the 2024 campaign, Trump indicated he would restart federal executions and work to expand the pool of crimes eligible for capital punishment under federal law, which generally allows for the death penalty in cases of murder, espionage and treason.

Trump’s transition team condemned the commutations on Monday, describing the move as an “abhorrent decision” benefiting those “among the worst killers in the world.”

“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,” Trump transition spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.

Biden’s announcement also comes after he pardoned his son Hunter Biden this month for federal tax and gun convictions and as the White House has said that further clemency and commutation announcements were forthcoming. President Biden this month also granted clemency to roughly 1,500 people in the biggest single-day act of clemency in modern history.

Opponents of capital punishment and top Biden allies such as Sen. Chris Coons had been encouraging the president to consider commuting federal death penalty sentences.

“President Biden has an opportunity to make history by addressing the racist and unjust federal death penalty system and keep an early campaign promise he made to the American people,” Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said this month after the ACLU and more than 130 other civil and human rights organizations sent Biden a letter urging him to commute the sentences of those on death row.

Coons, a Delaware Democrat, told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday that Biden should consider the commutations on a “case-by-case basis.”

“There are some real questions about the fairness and the process of the death penalty in the United States. And I don’t know what President Biden will ultimately do, but I think there are reasons — both in terms of racial justice, due process and what it says domestically and to the world about our values, if we were to go ahead and execute all of these individuals rather than have them spend the rest of life in prison,” Coons said on “State of the Union.”

Biden campaigned in 2020 on abolishing the federal death penalty, and early in his presidency imposed a moratorium on federal executions while the Justice Department reviewed the practice. Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, has not sought the death penalty in any new cases, although the Justice Department continued to back death sentences for some federal defendants, including Tsarnaev and Roof.

Outside of the federal system, there are over 2,000 people in the United States who were convicted in state courts and put on death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Biden has no power to stop those death sentences.

Opponents fear Trump’s return to the White House will herald a new round of federal executions in an echo of the final months of the president-elect’s first administration. Thirteen people were executed in the last seven months of Trump’s first term after then-Attorney General Bill Barr revived the practice from a 17-year hiatus.

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.

While the Justice Department under Trump could resume seeking the death penalty in future cases, it cannot undo any commutations that Biden has issued.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Dakin Andone and Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.

I don't like this.

i understand the reasoning, i just personally don't agree nor like it.

He commuted them to life with no parole. I’m fine with that if it makes people sleep better not killing them. I have no idea who they are, but most are probably going to live out those years in max or super-max. After working on the construction of a super-max in the late 80s, I can tell you right now, IMO, death would be better.

Figures a brain dead libtard corpse would commute child rapists and murderers. They don't believe in following the law so why wouldn't they commute these horrible people who committed heinous crimes. No wonder Trump won. I feel sorry for the victims families.

I don't like it either. It is Presidential perogative but it seems a weird thing to do. It's not something to get all ranty about though.

People in this country are almost evenly split on he death penalty so I do understand it. But much like Swish I don't like it. They will spend the rest of their life in prison so it's not as thought they will see the light of day. And as for the brain dead one, that would be the one that doesn't seem to know it's legal for a president to do this even if one doesn't like it. That is following the law.

The brain rot has caused secretions of vulgarity and psychosis in your posts. You should have that looked at.

THEY WILL STILL BE IN PRISON. Now go read a book. FrankZ brought up chicken little in another thread, seems appropriate here. Buck buck.

Not wanting to kill is weird? Then why did abortion become illegal?

Biden doesn’t like the death penalty for non hate/terroristic crimes. I’m more of a put one in the back of their heads guy too on some of the more heinous crimes. But like you said, POTUS gets the privilege. I hope he orders pot off the schedule 1 or 2 lists of drugs on his way out too.

And if he really wanted to stir a stink, he could pardon traitors like Manafort or Bannon. Look at the list of social parasites Trump pardoned:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_granted_executive_clemency_by_Donald_Trump

I think the chunkiness of the pardons is weird. Grouping people together in large chunks for pardons and commutations is weird to me.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot... But Truuuuuuuuuuuuuuump!

I’m Dawglover05 and I approve of this message.

I'm sure your pardon and commutation list would have made interesting reading.

I'm sure your pardon and commutation list would have made interesting reading.

They went through a lawful trial for their terrible crimes and earned a death sentence. They deserve to die for the lives they destroyed and ruined. But here you are sucking up to a braindead corpse, saying it's ok he denied justice for those families. SHAME ON YOU. HOW DO YOU LIVE WITH YOURSELF?

The reasoning is even faulty.

If he did this for moral reasons as stated, that's his choice even if I disagree. He has that power and I can live with the decision. The problem is he left 3 people on federal death row so saying it was for moral reasons is a bunch of bull.

We’ll find out in 2032.

To quote you... "Ha!"

I stole it from James Brown

I live quite fine with who I am. You need a mirror.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-wa...o-biden-commuting-killers-death-sentence

Tell it to these people who watched their loved ones be murdered, and then watched that braindead corpse sweep it under the rug.

J\c

Whether its this instance, hunter biden, potentially the jan 6th rioters, roger stone ... Everyone who is against or frustrated by a particular set of pardons is railing about the symptom not the cause. The issue is the complete lunacy of being a nation of laws that gives a person the ability to usurp that rule of law and pardon ANYONE.

If you're angered by Hunter being pardoned, or the death sentence being commuted ... But not equally outraged by the idea of Jan 6 rioters being pardoned, or Manafort, or Stone or Flynn ....or vice versa .... Then you're a hypocrite. The problem is giving someone the ability to undermine the process of law. To me its as simple as that. Jmo

And pardons cover that. If they had not been tried and convicted they wouldn't need pardoned. Those families weren't "denied justice". These people will be in prison until they die. It's not about whose side you're on. I don't like it either. The only thing biden did away with was killing them. And as much as I don't like it, what Biden did was legal.

If you are incapable of distinguishing between the crimes of Roger stone and the murder of two young children and, I believe a 20 year old woman who was serving America in our Navy, that is a “you” problem. Most folks can distinguish between the two.

So being in prison for the rest of your life doesn't show you the difference? It's obvious they're different. In one case while the crimes were less severe they were personal friends who committed most of their crimes while working directly with trump in The White House. They had to serve no further time or punishment for the crimes they committed. Much like the hunter biden pardon which was just as bad.

The others committed heinous crimes and will remain in prison until the day they die. So there is more than one difference here. Some of you are throwing tantrums like they got a get out of jail free card.

They were sentenced to death. No reason for them not to get the sentence they deserved.

Except whether we like it or not every president has the legal right to decide otherwise. No matter how much you rant about it that's the reason.

Libtards are all for criminals not being punished and lawlessness, except when they commit lawfare against their political opponents.

That doesn't make it right. Just another reason libtards have lost touch with the country.

Yeah, spending your life in a cell until you die isn't punishment in trumplandia. As per usual your tantrum makes no sense.

The punishment he earned from judge and jury was death. The families deserve justice. Overriding the judge and jury is typical libtard scum behavior. Just like how he pardoned Hunter when he said he wouldn't. Lying scum.

Is it typical libtard scuum behavior when trump overrides a juries decision on punishment? So you just like your lying scum better? Typical MAGA tantrum.

I get your emotions prevent you from tackling or addressing root cause. Thats 100% a you problem. Thanks for basically proving my point.

Ditto.

I do not question whether the president has the legal right to do this, I question whether he should do it.

For some of us that question "I question whether he should do it" is a question that works in both directions from time to time. While with others it only applies in one direction. Some of you make that obvious.

Scream into a paper-bag with your head between your knees until you regain your composer. Hyperventilating while frothing at the mouth is not a good look dear.

Eh, it's what you've done for the last several years.

Ok, Miss PW Herman.