US President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of almost every inmate on federal death row, whose sentences will now be reclassified from execution to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Of the 40 inmates facing federal execution, President Biden is commuting 37.
Among the crimes committed by those whose sentences are being commuted are prison murders, of both prisoners and a guard, as well as murders carried out during bank robberies.
The three inmates whose sentences aren’t being commuted are: Robert Bowers, responsible for the Tree of Life Synagogue mass shooting in 2018 (11 people killed); Dylann Roof, responsible for the 2015 Emanuel AME Church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina (9 people killed); and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, co-responsible for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing (three people killed, hundreds injured).
In a statement accompanying the move, President Biden said that he is “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,” he said.
At the beginning of his term in office, Biden declared a moratorium on federal executions. He described the latest commutations as “consistent” with that moratorium, but reiterated his support for the death penalty at the federal level for cases involving “terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder”.
“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,” he said.
The move comes just weeks after the president commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 40 others, including his son, Hunter Biden, for offences committed over a 10-year period from January 2014 to December 2024.
According to the US Department of Justice, Biden has pardoned a total of 65 individuals and commuted sentences for 1,634 inmates during his time as president, as of December 13.