Official announcements from the White House or Department of Justice

Biden Commutes 37 Federal Death Sentences to Life Without Parole, Excludes Three, Draws Criticism

Dec 27, 2024, 04:19 PM

President Joe Biden has commuted the death sentences of 37 out of 40 federal death row inmates to life imprisonment without parole, a move influenced by his conscience and experience as a public defender. He called for the cessation of the federal death penalty. This decision has drawn criticism from President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to pursue capital punishment upon taking office, describing Biden's action as senseless and detrimental to victims' families. Senator Joe Manchin, on his way out of the Senate, criticized the commutation of two specific death sentences as 'horribly misguided and insulting,' particularly citing the case of Samantha Burns, whose killers' sentences were commuted despite her family's pleas against it. The commutations exclude three inmates convicted of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Robert Bowers, and Dylann Roof.