The White House / Flickr
CV NEWS FEED // President Joe Biden this week commuted the death penalty sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row, changing their sentences to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.
The move comes after Pope Francis and Catholic groups, secular organizations, and other individuals publicly pleaded with Biden to show mercy to the death row inmates, as CatholicVote previously reported.
“… I feel compelled to ask all of you to pray for the inmates on death row in the United States,” Pope Francis said during his Angelus address Dec. 8. “Let us pray that their sentences may be commuted or changed. Let us think of these brothers and sisters of ours and ask the Lord for the grace to save them from death.”
Biden commuted the sentences on Dec. 23. According to a news release from the White House, Biden “believes that America must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder – which is why today’s actions apply to all but those cases.”
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), welcomed Biden’s decision and called it a “significant step in advancing the cause of human dignity and respect for human life from womb to tomb in our nation.”
“As we continue to proclaim the Gospel in a broken world, this act of mercy is a step closer to building a culture of life,” he stated in a Dec. 23 news release. “We encourage all lawmakers to continue to work towards the total abolition of the death penalty, and to redirect the energy and resources that currently go towards executions to provide compassionate and professional assistance to the families of victims.”
Archbishop Broglio also encouraged all elected officials to take steps to protect life at all stages.
FOX News reported that the three sentences that were not commuted are that of Robert Bowers, responsible for the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2018; Dylann Roof, responsible for the racially-motivated murder of nine Black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who, along with his now-deceased brother, is responsible for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Biden imposed a moratorium on federal death sentences when he took office in 2021 and has publicly opposed the death penalty. President-elect Donald Trump, however, has shown more willingness to use the death penalty, as his previous administration was the first in 17 years to carry out federal executions.
Trump said during his campaign that he would use the death penalty once more once he takes office, especially to punish drug dealers and human traffickers.
“These are terrible, terrible, horrible people who are responsible for death, carnage, and crime all over our country,” Trump said in a statement Nov. 15, 2022, the day he announced his 2024 presidential campaign. He later added, “We’re going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts. It’s the only way.”
According to the White House, Biden will spend his few remaining weeks in office taking “additional steps to provide meaningful second chances and continue to review additional pardons and commutations.”
>>Biden debates preemptive pardons to protect White House officials from prosecution under Trump<<
In addition to the death penalty commutations this month, Biden controversially issued a pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, Dec. 1. He also has reportedly been considering issuing preemptive pardons to White House officials to shield them from possible prosecution under the incoming Trump administration.
