On Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 out of 40 federal inmates, taking action ahead of the potential return of former President Donald Trump, who oversaw a significant number of lethal injections during his first term.
With less than a month remaining in office, Biden faced increasing pressure from death penalty opponents to commute the sentences of those on death row to life imprisonment without parole. The 37 inmates will now serve life sentences.
This decision leaves only a few high-profile offenders, convicted of crimes driven by hate or terrorism, facing the federal death penalty, which has been under a moratorium during Biden’s presidency.
“These commutations are in line with the moratorium my Administration has implemented on federal executions, except in cases involving terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,” Biden stated.
He added, “I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole.”
Among the three inmates remaining on death row are Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was involved in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who murdered nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; and Robert Bowers, who killed 11 Jewish worshippers in the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh.
Those granted commutations include nine individuals convicted of murdering fellow prisoners, four for murders committed during bank robberies, and one for killing a prison guard.
“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 emphasized. “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 added.
Biden campaigned on a platform opposing the death penalty, and after taking office, the Justice Department imposed a moratorium on federal executions.
During his reelection campaign, Trump often discussed expanding capital punishment, proposing it for migrants who kill American citizens and for drug and human traffickers.
Under Trump, the federal government resumed executions in July 2020, after a 17-year hiatus. He oversaw 13 executions by lethal injection during his final six months in office, the most in any U.S. presidency in 120 years. The last federal execution took place on January 16, 2021, four days before Trump left office.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 U.S. states, with six others — Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee — having placed moratoriums on executions.
As of 2024, there have been 25 executions in the United States, all at the state level.
