(WASHINGTON) — On Monday, President Joe Biden made headlines with a crucial announcement: he has commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 individuals currently on federal death row, changing their sentences to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. This decision comes shortly before President-elect Donald Trump, who has been vocal about his support for capital punishment, is set to take office.
This significant move spares the lives of individuals convicted of serious offenses, including the murders of police and military personnel, violent crimes on federal property, and those involved in armed bank robberies or drug trafficking. The list also includes those responsible for the deaths of guards or fellow inmates within federal prisons.
Thanks to Biden’s decision, only three federal inmates are still facing execution: Dylann Roof, who was convicted for the racially motivated massacre of nine Black churchgoers at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the perpetrator of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; and Robert Bowers, who killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, marking one of the deadliest antisemitic attacks in U.S. history.
“Throughout my career, I have been committed to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair justice system,” Biden said in his announcement. “Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life without parole. These actions reflect the moratorium my administration has implemented on federal executions, except in cases related to terrorism or hate-fueled mass murders.”
In 2021, the Biden Administration put a halt to federal capital punishment to reevaluate existing protocols, effectively stopping executions during his tenure. However, Biden had previously expressed intentions to pursue a complete abolition of federal executions, with no exceptions for terrorism or hate crimes.
During his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden’s platform explicitly stated his goal to “work towards passing legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level and encourage states to follow suit.”
However, similar commitments were notably absent from his reelection agenda prior to his campaign suspension in July.
“Let me clarify: I denounce these murderers, share in the grief of their victims, and empathize with the families who have suffered unimaginable losses,” Biden emphasized in his statement. “Yet, drawing from my conscience and my experiences as a public defender, Senate Judiciary Committee chair, vice president, and now as president, I am increasingly convinced that we must eliminate the death penalty at the federal level.”
Biden also subtly criticized Trump, stating, “In good conscience, I cannot permit a new administration to resume the executions that I have halted.”
Trump, who is set to take office on January 20, has frequently pushed for an expansion of the death penalty. In his 2024 campaign announcement, he suggested that individuals “caught selling drugs” should face the death penalty for their actions. He went on to promise executions for drug and human traffickers and even praised China’s strict measures against drug dealers. During his first term, Trump was a strong advocate for enforcing the death penalty for drug offenders.
Trump’s presidency saw 13 federal executions, the highest number carried out by any president in modern history, some occurring rapidly enough to contribute to the spread of COVID-19 at the federal death row facility in Indiana.
These executions marked the first federal death penalties since 2003, with the final three taking place after Election Day 2020 but before Trump left office—an unprecedented move for a lame-duck president since Grover Cleveland in 1889.
Biden has faced increasing pressure from advocacy groups urging him to act decisively to prevent Trump from expanding the use of capital punishment against federal inmates. This latest announcement follows Biden’s previous commutation of roughly 1,500 individuals who were released to home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with an additional 39 convicted of nonviolent offenses—resulting in the largest single-day clemency act in modern history.
Moreover, this announcement arrives on the heels of Biden’s controversial pardon of his son Hunter for federal gun and tax charges, which raised eyebrows in Washington. This pardon has led to speculation about whether Biden might consider broader preemptive pardons for administration officials and allies who could be at risk from Trump’s future administration.
Speculation about Biden commuting federal death sentences surged last week after the White House announced his upcoming trip to Italy for what will be his final foreign visit as president next month. As a practicing Catholic, Biden is expected to meet with Pope Francis, who recently called for prayers for U.S. death row inmates in hopes of having their sentences commuted.
Martin Luther King III, who has publicly encouraged Biden to reconsider death sentences, praised the president’s actions in a statement released by the White House, asserting that the president “has done what no previous president has dared to do: take significant and lasting steps to acknowledge the racist origins of the death penalty and address its ongoing inequities.”
Donnie Oliverio, a retired Ohio police officer whose partner was killed by one of the individuals whose death sentence was commuted, shared his perspective, stating that executing “the person who killed my police partner and best friend would have brought me no solace.”
“The president has made the right call here,” Oliverio added, “and it resonates with the faith that both he and I share.”
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Weissert reported from West Palm Beach, Florida.
