Biden Commutes 37 Death Sentences to Life Imprisonment

washington - President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal death row inmates to life imprisonment, aiming to prevent them from receiving a lethal injection under his successor Donald Trump.

President Biden stated, 'Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, mourn the victims of their heinous acts. But guided by my conscience and experience, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.'

Since 2003, no federal prisoners have been executed until Trump restarted the executions in 2020. In the last six months of his presidency, thirteen criminals were put to death, more than under any other president in over a century. During his campaign, Trump vowed to expand the use of the death penalty in a second term.

Execution still occurs in just under half of US states. This year, a total of 25 prisoners were executed at the state level.

The three death row inmates whose sentences were not commuted by Biden are criminals who committed hate crimes or terrorist acts. They include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who carried out an attack during the 2013 Boston Marathon, Dylann Roof, a racist who killed nine black churchgoers in 2015, and Robert Bowers, who killed eleven Jews in a synagogue in 2018.