US President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 federal inmates on death row to life in prison without parole before handing power to President-elect Donald Trump on January 20.
Biden’s move would frustrate Trump’s plans to resume a fast pace of executions. Unlike executive orders, clemency decisions cannot be overturned by a presidential successor, although the death penalty may be sought more aggressively in the future.
Trump resumed federal enforcement after a nearly 20-year hiatus during his first term from 2017 to 2021.
Biden, who ran for president as an opponent of the death penalty, halted the federal death penalty when he took office in January 2021.
In recent weeks, he has faced pressure from congressional Democrats, death penalty opponents and religious leaders like Pope Francis to reduce the federal death penalty before he leaves.
“Make no mistake: I condemn these killers, grieve for the victims of their heinous acts, and grieve for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden said in a statement.
“But guided by my conscience and my experience … I am more convinced than ever that we must end the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” he said. “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and allow the new administration to resume the implementation that I stopped.”
Earlier this month, Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes.
He also issued a full and unconditional pardon of his son Hunter, after repeatedly insisting that he would not do so. Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to tax evasion and was convicted on gun charges.
The ruling issued on Monday does not apply to cases of terrorism or hate-motivated mass killings.
That leaves three well-known people on federal death row: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted in 2013 for his involvement in the Boston Marathon finish line bombing; Dylann Roof, convicted of the 2015 shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina; and Robert Bowers, who was convicted in 2018 of the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
All three men have filed appeals and legal challenges to their sentences that must be resolved before an execution date can be set, a process that could take years.
Human rights groups have praised the decision. Amnesty International America called it a “big moment for human rights”. “The President’s decision is an important step towards his 2020 pledge to end the death penalty at the federal level and encourage states to follow suit,” Amnesty International USA Executive Director Paul O’Brien said in a statement.
Biden’s decision also does not affect about 2,200 death row inmates convicted in state courts, as he has no authority over such executions.
Republican lawmakers criticized Biden for the move. Radical Republican Representative Chip Roy called it “insensitive” on social media platform X. “Presidents pardon power being abused by @JoeBiden to pervert justice,” he said.
Senator Tom Cotton said, “When given the choice between law-abiding Americans or criminals, Joe Biden and the Democrats choose the criminals every time.”
Presidents typically order a round of pardons toward the end of their terms.
The Office of the Clerk of Pardons, part of the Justice Department, has received about 12,000 requests for clemency during Biden’s tenure, according to statistics kept by Pardon Advocates. As of December 9, the President had issued 161 amnesty grants – 26 pardons and 135 commutations.
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