Can Donald Trump reverse Joe Biden's death penalty commutation?

With just weeks left in office, US President Joe Biden has decided to commute the sentences of 37 of 40 federal death row inmates — potentially thwarting President-elect Donald Trump's plans to expand federal executions during his next administration.

Republicans quickly condemned Biden's move, with some accusing the president of siding with criminals against law-abiding Americans.

Federal executions were relatively rare before Trump's first term, which ended with a wave of executions that ended a 130-year-old precedent of pausing executions amid a presidential transition.

He has vowed to resume the practice when he returns to the White House in January, setting the stage for potential legal battles early in the administration.

Here's what we know.

on monday, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 death row inmatesand their sentence was changed to life without parole.

Only three inmates are left to face the death penalty, including convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Robert Bowers, who was sentenced to death for killing 11 worshipers and wounding seven during a shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.

The third, Dylann Roof, was sentenced to death in 2017 for a mass shooting that killed nine black parishioners at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.

While the move was widely praised by human rights groups such as Amnesty International, it was quickly condemned by some Republicans, as well as Trump's transition team and its political allies.

Trump's communications director, Stephen Cheung, said in a statement, “These are among the worst killers in the world and this abhorrent decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones.”

He added, “President Trump defends the rule of law, which will be restored when he returns to the White House.”

Texas Republican Chip Roy, for example, tweeted that the decision was “unconscionable” and an abuse of power “to miscarry justice.”

Another Republican, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, said that “when given a choice between law-abiding Americans or criminals, Joe Biden and the Democrats choose the criminals every time.”

Some family members also expressed their anger.

On Facebook, Heather Turner — whose mother was killed in a 2017 bank robbery — called the commutations a “gross abuse of power.”

“At no time did the President consider the victims,” she wrote. “He and his supporters have blood on their hands.”

The commutations do not apply to nearly 2,200 death row inmates convicted by state courts, over which the president has no authority.

During his campaign, Trump pledged to resume federal executions and make more people eligible for the death penalty, including those convicted of child rape or drug and human trafficking cases, as well as immigrants who kill U.S. citizens or police officers. .

“These are horrible, horrible, horrible people who are responsible for death and carnage and crime all over the country,” Trump said when he announced his 2022 presidential bid.

He added: “We will demand that anyone who sells drugs and is caught face the death penalty for his heinous actions.”

There are more than 40 federal laws that could, in theory, result in the death penalty, ranging from murders committed during drug-related shootings to genocide.

Almost all of them – with the exception of crimes of espionage and treason – explicitly involve the death of the victim.

However, Trump has offered few details about how he plans to fulfill his campaign pledge.

Despite the lack of clarity, Trump's pledges to expand the federal death penalty have drawn strong warnings from human rights advocates.

In a Dec. 11 statement, for example, the ACLU said Trump's “chilling” plans amounted to an expansion of “the killing spree he began in the last six months of his first presidency.”

“He has already shown us that he will follow through on these promises,” the statement said.

Among the prisoners executed during the final days of Trump's first administration were Lisa Montgomery, the first woman executed by the federal government since 1953, and Lesmond Mitchell, the only Native American on federal death row.

Trump's efforts to expand the death penalty to include crimes that do not involve murder are likely to face legal challenges.

In 2008, for example, the Supreme Court ruled that those convicted of child rape could not be executed, adding that it was unclear whether the death penalty could be applied for crimes in which the victim is not killed.

According to the National Registry of Exonerations, cases where the victims are children are particularly vulnerable to wrongful convictions, can be “highly emotional” and pit family members against each other.

Any further expansion of crimes eligible for the federal death penalty would require Congress to act and change the law.

In 2024, two bills — sponsored by Florida Republican and Trump ally Ana Paulina Luna — sought to expand the use of capital crimes to include possession of child pornography, as well as trafficking, exploitation and abuse of children.

Both failed to pass the House.

It is also unlikely that Trump will be able to quickly rehouse the pool of federal death row inmates, as most death penalty cases take years and are subject to lengthy appeals processes.

While he has no direct authority over state executions, some experts have warned that Trump's pro-death penalty stance could lead to more state executions.

“His rhetoric could lead to tough actions and positions by state leaders on many issues, including in the context of the criminal legal system,” said Yasmine Qadir, deputy legal director at the ACLU and director of the Trone Center for Human Rights. Justice and Equality told CNN.

In addition to the federal government and the US military, 27 US states still have the death penalty on the books.

A Gallup poll conducted in October showed that a narrow majority of Americans – 53% – support the death penalty for convicted murderers, compared to 50% a year ago.