A prominent progressive Democrat in the House praised President Biden's sweep Order of dilution For people on federal death row, calling the death penalty itself “racist.”
“The President’s decision to commute the death sentences of 37 people on federal death row is a historic and groundbreaking act of compassion that will save lives, address the deep racial disparities in our criminal legal system, and send a powerful message about redemption, decency and compassion,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley. “Humanity and humanitarianism,” the Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement Monday.
“The death penalty is a racist, flawed and fundamentally unjust punishment that has no place in any society.”
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Representative Ayanna Pressley called the death penalty “racist” in a statement praising President Biden's clemency decision. (Getty Images)
Pressley said the death penalty largely targeted black and brown communities and “failed to make America safer.”
The Massachusetts lawmaker, a member of the hard-left group of House Democrats called “The Squad,” has been at the forefront of the progressive campaign to abolish the death penalty.
Biden's clemency order affects nearly all of those on federal death row in the United States.
only Three out of 40 And the prisoners are still there — Dylann Roof, who killed nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina in 2015; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; and Robert Bowers, who killed 11 worshipers at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.
Democrats intensified their pressure on Biden to act after the controversial pardon of his son Hunter. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Among those whose sentences were commuted to life imprisonment were Thomas Sanders, who kidnapped and murdered a 12-year-old girl; Jorge Avila Torrez, who sexually assaulted and stabbed two young girls to death and strangled a 20-year-old female naval officer four years later; And Anthony Battle, who killed an Atlanta prison guard with a hammer 30 years ago.
Democrats were increasing pressure on Biden to use his pardon powers after the controversial and wide-ranging pardon he granted to his son. Hunter Bidenjust weeks before he was expected to be sentenced on federal weapons charges.
Biden responded to that pressure earlier this month when he commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 Americans in the largest order of its kind in a single day.
This comes as President-elect Trump has promoted his plans for months to expand the death penalty to include drug traffickers, child rapists, and illegal immigrants who kill American citizens.
At the end of his first term, Trump's Justice Department carried out its first federal executions in 20 years, carrying out the sentences of 13 federal inmates on death row.
Senator Tom Cotton criticized Biden's decision. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, a top Trump ally, criticized Biden for his order on Monday.
“Once again, Democrats stand with corrupt criminals regarding their victims, public order, and public decency,” Cotton wrote on X.
“Democrats can't even defend Biden's terrible decision as some sort of principled, blanket opposition to the death penalty because he didn't get relief on the three most politically toxic issues. Democrats are the party of politically correct justice.”
