Joe Biden may commute the sentences of all 40 federal death row inmates after pressure from more than 130 human and ‘civil rights’ groups.
This is after Biden commuted the sentences of 1,500 people and pardoned 39 others – the biggest single-day act of clemency in history, the AP reported.
Biden also pardoned his son, Hunter, who was convicted of felony gun crimes after he promised he would respect the jury’s verdict.
President Trump has promised to accelerate federal executions so Joe Biden is likely going to commute their sentences in an effort to derail Trump’s plans.
Trump’s DOJ signed off on 13 federal executions during Trump’s first term.
The 40 inmates on death row have been convicted of heinous crimes and gruesome murders.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber, Dylann Roof, the man who fatally shot 9 parishioners at a church in South Carolina, and Robert Bowers, the man who carried out a mass shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue, are all currently on death row.
Click here to read about the 40 men currently on federal death row.
The Wall Street Journal reported:
President Biden is considering commuting the sentences of most, if not all, of the 40 men on the federal government’s death row, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would frustrate President-elect Donald Trump’s ability to resume the rapid pace of executions that marked his first term.
A broad coalition of religious and civil-rights groups has been pressing Biden to take the step, and the effort gained momentum earlier this month after Pope Francis, in his weekly address, prayed for the commutation of America’s condemned inmates. If their death sentences were commuted, the prisoners, all convicted of murder, would serve life without parole. Biden, a devout Catholic, spoke with Francis on Thursday and is scheduled to meet with him at the Vatican next month, the White House said.
