President Joe Biden may commute the sentences of most or all of the 40 men on death row, according to a Wall Street Journal report. If Biden commutes the sentences, the men would stay in jail on life sentences without the possibility of parole.
It would create an early hurdle for President-elect Donald Trump. He wants to resume federal executions and expand the use of the federal death penalty.
Attorney General Merrick Garland halted federal executions in 2021, during the early months of the Biden administration.
The Journal reports Garland is one of several key voices in the White House’s death penalty debate. They said the attorney general recommended Biden commute most sentences, except for a handful of cases involving terrorism and hate crimes.
Three possible exceptions include Dzokhar Tsarnaev, convicted of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings; Robert Bowers, convicted of the 2018 Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue shooting; and Dylann Roof, convicted of the 2015 shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Biden is weighing the move amid pressure from civil rights groups and religious leaders. Pope Francis prayed for commutations for Americans on death row in his weekly address earlier this month.
Biden, a devout Catholic, spoke with Francis on Thursday, Dec. 20, and will head to the Vatican next month before leaving office.
The move would override Justice Department prosecutors under both Democratic and Republican presidents who asked for death sentences.
DOJ prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the perpetrator of the 2022 shooting at Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y.
Republicans condemned the prospect of Biden commuting most or all federal death sentences. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., warned the move would weaken the government’s condemnation of harsh offenses.
“It would mean that society’s most forceful condemnation of white supremacy and antisemitism must give way to legal mumbo jumbo,” McConnell said. “The irony of claims of systemic racism causing the president to spare Dylann Roof is ludicrous, ludicrous to the point of tragedy.”
It’s unclear whether any of Biden’s commutations would affect the four inmates on the military’s death row.
The move would also not affect any death sentences in states that use the death penalty for state-level crimes.
