President Joe Biden commutes 37 out of 40 federal death sentences

US President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal inmates on death row, switching their sentences to life in prison without parole.

The three excluded from the measure are the Boston Marathon bomber and the man who killed Jewish worshipers in 2018.

Biden said in a statement that he is “more convinced than ever of the necessity of stopping the use of the death penalty at the federal level.” Its measure does not include more than 2,000 people sentenced to death by state authorities.

Biden’s decision comes ahead of the January return of President-elect Donald Trump, who resumed federal executions while in office.

Among those suspended by Biden were nine people convicted of killing fellow prisoners, four of murders committed during bank robberies and one person who killed a prison guard.

“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, I mourn for the victims of their despicable actions, and I ache for all the families who have suffered an unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden added.

Len Davis, a former New Orleans police officer who ran a drug ring that involved other officers and arranged the killing of a woman, was among those granted clemency.

Billy Allen, who has been on federal death row for 27 years, said he felt “huge relief” after Biden commuted his sentence.

Allen was convicted of killing a security guard during a bank robbery in Missouri in 1997. He has always maintained his innocence.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s World Tonight program from Terra Haute prison in Indiana, Allen said prisoners were “thrilled to no longer face death” when they learned of the decision.

“You have to realize that when you face death every day, getting rid of that burden is a huge relief.”

Asked about the anger of some victims’ families over the decision, Allen said: “I understand that for some people the death penalty is justice… but these men here said they would take this opportunity to do better.” To be better – so maybe they can take some solace in that.”

Heather Turner, whose mother Donna Major was shot to death in a South Carolina bank robbery in 2017, said she was “hurt” and “very disappointed” by the killer’s death sentence being commuted.

“I feel this decision comes without consideration for the victims and their families,” Turner told BBC World Tonight.

He added: “Making this decision, especially at Christmas, is painful.”

“Justice isn’t just doing what’s right. It’s also distributing the right consequences. And I believe the consequence of murder is death,” Turner said, adding that she believed Biden’s decision was “politically motivated.”

The three inmates still on death row include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who helped carry out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who shot and killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.

Robert Bowers, who killed 11 Jewish worshipers during a 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, will also remain on death row.

Biden campaigned as an opponent of the death penalty, and the Justice Department issued a moratorium on its use at the federal level after he became president.

During his first term, Trump oversaw 13 Deaths by lethal injection During his last six months in power.

No federal prisoners had been executed in the United States since 2003 until Trump resumed federal executions in July 2020.

During his re-election campaign, Trump indicated that he would expand the use of the death penalty to include human and drug traffickers, as well as immigrants who kill American citizens.

Biden appeared to indicate Trump’s intentions in his statement by saying that he could not “in good conscience stand back and let the new administration resume the executions it halted.”

In US law, the president’s successor cannot revoke these pardons.

Some Republicans criticized the president’s announcement.

Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said on Twitter previously that Democrats “are the party of political correctness” after news of the commutation became public.

“Once again, Democrats stand with corrupt criminals about their victims, public order, and public decency,” he said.

Biden’s decision will not affect people on death row in state courts, which is what it is about About 2250 Prisoners, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. More than 70 executions were carried out in states during Biden’s presidency.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states. Six other states, including Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, have moratoriums.

Earlier this month, Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes.

He also pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who was facing sentencing in two criminal cases. He pleaded guilty to tax charges earlier in September, and was convicted of illegal drug use and gun possession in June, becoming the first child of a sitting president to be convicted of a crime.

The United States Constitution states that the president has “broad power to grant reprieves and pardons for crimes against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.”