For all the stories on Biden commuting the sentences of these horrendous people who earned a death sentence, it’s Reuters that truly exposes what this is about
Biden commutes sentences of 37 of 40 inmates on federal death row
U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the sentences for 37 out of 40 federal inmates on death row, converting them to life in prison without parole before he hands over power to President-elect Donald Trump on Jan. 20.
Biden’s move will frustrate Trump’s plan to resume a rapid pace of executions. Unlike executive orders, clemency decisions cannot be reversed by a president’s successor, although the death penalty can be sought more aggressively in future cases.
Trump restarted federal executions after a nearly 20-year pause during his first term in office from 2017 to 2021.
Biden, who ran for president opposing the death penalty, put federal executions on hold when he took office in January 2021.
In recent weeks, he has faced pressure from congressional Democrats, opponents of capital punishment and religious leaders such as Pope Francis to commute federal death sentences before he leaves.
“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.
So, yeah, he did this now Because Trump. He could have done this years ago, but, he didn’t. If he was truly against capital punishment, then why only 37 of 40?
It leaves out three of the most well-known men on federal death row: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for his involvement in the bombing at the Boston Marathon finish line in 2013; Dylann Roof, convicted for the shooting spree at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015; and, Robert Bowers, who was convicted for the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.
All of those on federal death row are scumbags, and, really, many of them have been on death row for decades, so, it’s not like most are any closer to being put to death. All Trump could do was reinstate the ability of Los Federales to have executions.
[…] Also see: William Teach, “Brandon Commutes 37 Federal Death Row Sentences Because Trump“ […]
Our distinguished host wrote:
That’s the part I don’t get. The President, in effect, created an exception to opposition to capital punishment, that being whether the killer committed a crime about which everyone has heard. Some of the men whose sentences were commuted killed more people than any of the three remaining on death row. Some of the crimes shock the conscience more. But the killings by Messrs Bowers, Tsarnaev, and Roof were more widely reported. It would have been a more effective statement against the death penalty had he commuted all forty capital sentences.
Of course, our outgoing President has no problem, no problem at all, with hundreds of thousands of executions every year via prenatal infanticide.