US President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal inmates on death row, converting their sentences to life in prison without parole.
These included nine people who were convicted of murdering fellow prisoners, four of murders committed during bank robberies, and one who killed a prison guard.
Biden said in a statement that he condemns the killers and their crimes, but added that he is “more convinced than ever of the necessity of stopping the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”
Biden's decision comes ahead of the January return of President-elect Donald Trump, who had previously resumed federal executions in July 2020 for the first time since 2003.
“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, I mourn for the victims of their despicable actions, and I ache for all the families who have suffered an unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden added.
Len Davis, a former New Orleans police officer who ran a drug ring that involved other officers and arranged the killing of a woman, was among those granted clemency.
The three remaining on death row include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who helped carry out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who shot and killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
Robert Bowers, who killed 11 Jewish worshipers during a 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, will also remain on death row.
Biden campaigned as an opponent of the death penalty, and the Justice Department issued a moratorium on its use at the federal level after he became president.
During his first term, Trump oversaw 13 Deaths by lethal injection During his last six months in power.
No federal prisoners had been executed in the United States since 2003 until Trump resumed federal executions in July 2020.
During his re-election campaign, Trump indicated that he would expand the use of the death penalty to include human and drug traffickers, as well as immigrants who kill American citizens.
Biden appeared to indicate Trump's intentions in his statement by saying that he could not “in good conscience stand back and let the new administration resume the executions it halted.”
In US law, the president's successor cannot revoke these clemency decisions.
Biden's decision will not affect people on death row in state courts, which is what it is about About 2250 Prisoners, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. More than 70 state executions have been carried out during Biden's presidency.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states. Six other states, including Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, have moratoriums.
Earlier this month, Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes.
He also pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who was facing sentencing in two criminal cases. He pleaded guilty to tax charges earlier in September, and was convicted of illegal drug use and gun possession in June, becoming the first child of a sitting president to be convicted of a crime.
The United States Constitution states that the president has “broad power to grant reprieves and pardons for crimes against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.”
