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President Biden issued a historic round of clemency on Monday, commuting the death sentences of 37 federal inmates to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. This decision comes just weeks before he transfers power to President-elect Donald Trump.
The move effectively prevents Trump from continuing his previous administration’s aggressive execution policy, as clemency decisions remain irreversible by subsequent presidents, though future cases can still face capital punishment.
Here is the list of the names of the 37 people on death row who just had their death sentences commuted by Joe Biden.
Many of the people on the list are murderers and child killers.
There were 40 people on death row. Biden commuted the death sentence of 37 of them.
How… pic.twitter.com/hudp13zWvq
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) December 23, 2024
During his previous term from 2017 to 2021, Trump had resumed federal executions after they had been suspended for nearly two decades. Upon taking office in 2021, Biden, who campaigned against capital punishment, suspended all federal executions.
In the lead-up to this decision, Biden faced mounting pressure from Democratic lawmakers, death penalty opponents, and religious figures, including Pope Francis, to take action on death row sentences before leaving office.
“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache 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 stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” he said. “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
This latest clemency action follows Biden’s recent decision to commute sentences for approximately 1,500 individuals and pardon 39 others convicted of nonviolent offenses. He also granted a full pardon to his son Hunter, who had been convicted of tax and firearms violations, despite previous statements indicating he would not do so.
Biden Death Row Commutations: A Thread
Joe Biden’s administration continues to show no regard for law and order or the judicial process by commuting 37 of the 40 sentences of death row inmates. Here are the monsters Democrats feel shouldn’t be put to death. pic.twitter.com/MxLlnDSZYq
— The Right Answer (@theright_answer) December 23, 2024
The commutations exclude cases involving terrorism or hate-motivated mass murder. Three notable death row inmates remain unaffected: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of the Boston Marathon bombing, Dylann Roof of the Charleston church shooting, and Robert Bowers of the Pittsburgh synagogue attack. Their cases remain in appeals, a process that could extend for years before any execution dates are set.
Biden’s authority does not extend to the approximately 2,200 inmates on state death rows, as these cases fall under state jurisdiction.
Presidential clemency actions traditionally increase as administrations draw to a close. During Biden’s term, the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney has processed nearly 12,000 clemency requests. As of December 9, the administration had granted 161 clemencies, including 26 pardons and 135 commutations.
