President Joe Biden on Monday will be giving those on death row a chance to live their lives without a looming death sentence over their heads.
That’s because Biden will commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 in federal prison on death row to life without parole, per the Washington Post.
Biden made this move, in part, ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office next month when he is expected to resume executions.
“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 as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, 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.”
Those who oppose capital punishment have wanted Biden to eliminate the population of the federal death row before Trump starts his second administration.
Trump, who supports the death penalty, carried out 13 federal executions in his first go at the presidency.
But not all were spared by Biden’s move as three remain on death row.
They are Dylann Roof, Robert Bowers and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Roof is a white supremacist who was convicted of killing nine Black parishioners at a South Carolina church in 2015.
Bowers killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.
Tsarnaev is the Boston Marathon bomber.
Biden himself has advocated for the death penalty in the past and pronounced this opposition when he ran for president in 2020.
However, his administration has played both sides regarding capital punishment.
During his time in office, the Justice Department stopped federal executions but also sought new death sentences.
Many voiced their disapproval over Biden’s action on X, formerly Twitter.
