Multiple outlets are reporting that President Joe Biden plans to use his clemency powers before leaving office next month, with speculation among opponents of capital punishment that he will act on his pledge to end the federal death penalty.
Biden is considering commuting the sentences of the 40 men on federal death row, potentially thwarting any efforts by President-elect Trump to resume executions, an exclusive by the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Religious and civil-rights groups, bolstered by Pope Francis's recent prayers for commutation, have urged Biden to act. Commutations would replace death sentences with life without parole.
Biden, a Catholic, recently spoke with Pope Francis and plans to meet him next month. A decision, possibly by Christmas, may involve either a blanket commutation or retaining death sentences for the most severe cases.
The Wall Street Journal wrote that Attorney General Merrick Garland has recommended President Biden commute most federal death sentences, with potential exceptions for cases like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Boston Marathon bombing), Robert Bowers (Tree of Life synagogue shooting), and Dylann Roof (Charleston church shooting).
Those eligible for commutation include individuals convicted of heinous crimes such as child killings, kidnapping-for-ransom murders, and a podiatrist who killed a patient to obstruct justice.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell commented: “It would mean that progressive politics is more important to the president than the lives taken by these murderers.”
“It would mean that society’s most forceful condemnation of white supremacy and antisemitism must give way to legal mumbo jumbo,” he added, doing his best to stay upright at whatever podium he was speaking from.
Four inmates remain on military death row at Fort Leavenworth, but it’s unclear if any potential commutation would include them or affect cases like Luigi Mangione’s pending federal death sentence.
While Biden campaigned on abolishing the federal death penalty and halted executions during his term, little progress has been made on his promise, with Democratic bills to end capital punishment lacking White House support.
Yasmin Cader, a deputy legal director at the ACLU, concluded: “We are absolutely engaging in pulling all the levers that we can. It would cement a very powerful moral legacy and fulfill a campaign promise.”