Consistent with his “conscience” and “experience”, Joe Biden announced that he had commuted the death sentences of nearly all inmates on federal death row. On Christmas Eve, and less than a month after leaving the White House, the Catholic president made a decision also in view of the return of Donald Trumpwho has always been in favor of the death penalty and is ready to extend it to other crimes. “I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole,” announced the commander-in-chief who excluded from the measure three high profile prisoners, guilty of terrorism or crimes of hatred. It’s about Dzhokhar Tsarnaevresponsible for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; Dylann Roofa white supremacist who killed nine African-American worshipers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015; Robert Bowers, perpetrator of the 2018 attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, in which 11 people were killed. Among the prisoners whose sentences were commuted, however, there are nine convicted of murders of other prisoners, four for murders committed during bank robberies and one for the killing of a prison guard.
“Don’t get me wrong: I condemn these murderers, I cry for the victims of their despicable acts, and I share the pain of the families who have suffered irreparable losses,” Biden said. «But, guided by my conscience and my experience. I am more convinced than ever that we must abolish the use of the death penalty at the federal level», he added. The president has declared his desire to abolish the federal death penalty since his campaign for the 2020 elections and in fact in these four years there have been no executions at the federal level. Furthermore, in July 2021, his Secretary of Justice Merrick Garland issued a moratorium on capital punishment to review policies and procedures, particularly those of the Trump era. In these four years, Biden has also asked federal prosecutors to try not to issue death sentences, within the limits of the law. Unlike the tycoon, who is not only in favor of the death penalty but during his last campaign also promised to expand it “to drug dealers, human traffickers” and perpetrators of sexual abuse of minors. During his first mandate there there were thirteen executions.
In the final weeks of his presidency, Biden also issued a record number of pardons, 1,500 and moremay announce more in the coming days for inmates incarcerated under outdated laws that have contributed to disparities in drug sentencing and the mass incarceration of Black Americans. In addition to pressure from religious and human rights groups, according to several sources, Biden’s decision accelerated after the phone call a few days ago with Pope Francis, whom he will visit on January 10 on his last trip abroad to president. Just at the beginning of the month, in his weekly speech, Bergoglio had prayed for the commutation of sentences for American prisoners sentenced to death, a topic that was addressed in his conversation with Biden last Thursday.