Left-wing groups are pressuring President Joe Biden to commute sentences for all federal death row inmates before he leaves office, which includes infamous murderers like the Boston Marathon bomber and Charleston church shooter.
Hundreds of Democrat-aligned organizations have signed onto a petition urging Biden to uphold his campaign promise to abolish the death penalty by commuting the sentence of every inmate, writing it is “not too late to act decisively.”
“As you are aware, this abhorrent and outdated punishment raises profound concerns, including the arbitrariness of its application, its inherent racial bias, and the alarming rate of innocence among those sentenced to death,” the petition states.
Manhattan Institute fellow Charles Fain Lehman told the Daily Caller News Foundation commuting all death sentences would be a “repudiation of the mandate the American people just gave” by electing President Donald Trump.
“Joe Biden had four years to enact a mass executive clemency,” Lehman said. “He did not do it. To do it on his way out would be preposterous. It would be particularly preposterous because it would mean giving executive clemency to people that every right thinking American agrees deserves to be put to death.”
Trump has said he wants to expand the use of the death penalty in certain cases, such as for child rapists, drug dealers and illegal migrants who kill U.S. citizens.
Democrats For Life is proud to join 350+ organizations that have signed a letter to @POTUS urging him to commute the federal death row, abolish the death penalty & demolish the death house. #StopExecutions
Take action here: https://t.co/X7AhV4vsTC
— Democrats For Life (@demsforlife) November 8, 2024
Requests on the petition include commuting death sentences, deauthorizing “all pending federal capital trial cases” and prohibiting the authorization of new death penalty prosecutions, rescinding internal guidelines pertaining to death row cases and ordering the Bureau of Prisons to “demolish the federal execution chamber.”
Organizations that signed onto the petition, which was sponsored by Death Penalty Action, include Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. Some faith-based groups like the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests, the Catholic Mobilizing Network and the Episcopal Peace Fellowship also signed.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the inmates on death row, was sentenced to death for his role in the 2013 Boston bombings that killed three and injured hundreds more. The Supreme Court upheld his sentence in 2022 after it was tossed out by a federal appeals court, which had called the attack Tsarnaev perpetrated alongside his brother “one of the worst domestic terrorist attacks” since 9/11.
A jury found Dylann Roof, another inmate on death row, guilty for killing nine people in a 2015 shooting at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Death Penalty Action Chair Rev. Sharon Risher told Newsweek killing Roof, who took the life of her mother, cousins and friend, “would do nothing to help me heal.”
There are currently 40 federal death row inmates, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
President Biden campaigned on addressing the death penalty and he has one last chance to take meaningful action before Trump assumes office.
Tell President Biden: Act now and commute the sentences of people on federal death row. https://t.co/YXww1kGyUg
— ACLU (@ACLU) November 8, 2024
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is also circulating a petition to commute federal death sentences that does not mention why inmates on death row were convicted, which include crimes of mass shootings, brutal murders and kidnappings.
“Now, in 2024, with over half of the federal death row comprising people of color, you have the chance to prevent irreversible miscarriages of justice and build a legacy rooted in racial justice and compassion,” the ACLU petition states. “You came into office committing to take action on the death penalty because of its fundamental flaws. Now is the time to follow through on that promise especially as the nation gets closer and closer to a Trump administration once again.”
Democrats for Life, the ACLU and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
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